Safaricom reported record half-year net income of KShs 42.8 billion for the six months ending September 2025, a 52 per cent increase year-on-year and the strongest first-half performance the Kenyan telecoms and financial services group has ever posted. The results were driven in large part by M-PESA, the mobile money platform that processed KShs 20.2 trillion in transaction value during the period, itself a record for any half-year period in the service's history.
The figures underline M-PESA's position as the dominant financial infrastructure in Kenya and across several other East African markets where Safaricom operates or has extended the platform's reach. With more than two decades since its launch, M-PESA has evolved from a basic mobile money transfer service into a platform for merchant payments, savings, credit, and increasingly sophisticated financial transactions — and the volume data suggests demand continues to expand.
M-PESA SETS NEW TRANSACTION RECORD
The KShs 20.2 trillion in M-PESA transaction value processed in the six months to September 2025 surpasses all previous half-year figures and reflects both the growing number of active users on the platform and the broadening range of use cases for which customers are deploying it. Consumer-to-business payments, utility bill settlements, government disbursements, and cross-border remittances all contribute to the transaction total, and each category has been growing as digital payment penetration deepens across the region.
M-PESA's scale creates a reinforcing competitive advantage: the larger the network of merchants and users, the more utility the platform offers to each individual participant, which in turn drives further adoption. Safaricom has invested in expanding M-PESA's infrastructure and adding new financial products to the platform, including credit and savings tools built around the transaction data that the service generates, and those investments appear to be generating returns in the form of higher transaction volumes.
The record transaction value also reflects the continued shift away from cash in Kenya's economy, a transition that regulators and policymakers have actively encouraged. Digital payments reduce friction in commerce, lower the cost of financial services for underserved populations, and improve the traceability of economic activity — goals that align with Kenya's financial inclusion agenda.
MANAGEMENT MAINTAINS FULL-YEAR GUIDANCE
Safaricom's management maintained its full-year earnings before interest and tax guidance of between KShs 144 billion and KShs 150 billion, signalling confidence that the M-PESA-led growth trajectory will continue through the second half of the financial year. The guidance range implies that the strong first-half performance is expected to be broadly sustained rather than representing a temporary spike, and it provides investors with a clear earnings target against which to measure second-half results.
The 52 per cent increase in net income over a single year is striking even by the standards of rapidly growing emerging-market businesses, and it reflects a combination of revenue acceleration and cost discipline. Safaricom's ability to convert top-line growth into net income at this rate suggests that operating leverage is materialising as M-PESA scales beyond the threshold where infrastructure costs grow proportionally with volumes.
The half-year results were published on 6 November 2025 and will be reviewed closely by investors in sub-Saharan African telecoms and fintech markets, where Safaricom and M-PESA serve as a benchmark for what mobile-led financial services can achieve at scale. The record profit and transaction figures reinforce the view that M-PESA remains one of Africa's most consequential financial innovations and that Safaricom's business model continues to generate exceptional returns from it.