Over 14,000 firms opt for Safaricom’s data services in year of Covid
In a year marked by policy shift to working online from home, over 14,ooo new businesses opted for Safaricom’s data network, the latest financial data from the telco giant says.
In the financial year ended March 2021, the total number of enterprises connected to Safaricom’s network increased by 56.9 per cent to 38,918 enterprises up from 24,802 firms recorded in the previous period.
The remote working policy also drove the growth of fiber to the home which saw a 31.5 per cent increase in the number of customers to 137,390 from 104,498 prior.
Calls for work from home by the government and industry implied that many households had to subscribe for mobile data or install home internet.
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Safaricom’s financial report shows that the telco’s distinct data bundles customers grew 12.4 per cent year-on-year to 16.71 million.
The company’s active fourth generation (4G) devices grew 39.8 per cent in the period to 8.5 million while data customers consuming over 1GB in surged 31.1 per cent to 6.1 million.
Fixed service and wholesale transit revenue grew six per cent year-on-year to KES9.5 billion, supported by growth in home fibre connectivity revenue which grew by 49.1 per cent to KES3.5 billion driven by working and schooling from home trends across our customers and increased penetration of homes connected which increased 15.6 percentage points to 58.5 per cent for the period, Safaricom said.
In the current year, Safaricom aims at growing usage by driving access to the network through 100 per cent population coverage on 4G currently at 94 per cent and by driving smartphone ownership through a device financing scheme.
