Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore announced his return to the helm of the telecoms company while reporting a 19.9 per cent increase in net income on Wednesday.
Speaking during their full-year investor briefing, Collymore, who has been on medical leave since October last year, noted that he was making good progress in his treatment.
"I look forward to being back in action in Nairobi soon," the CEO said as he announced a 10 per cent growth in revenue to Sh224.54 billion.
Safaricom reported a net income growth of 14.1 per cent to Sh55.29 billion for the year that ended March 31.
"To achieve these results, we sharpened our focus on putting our customers first, delivering relevant products and services and organisational effectiveness," Collymore said.
"[This]
strategy was exceptionally executed considering the challenging business climate last year."
For the year ending March 31, 2019, the company announced it will spend Sh35 billion to Sh38 billion in infrastructure expansion.
"In 2019, we look to drive long-term shareholder value by deploying next-generation network services, leveraging data analytics and segmentation, guided by our purpose of transforming lives to turn innovative ideas into realities," Finance Director Sateesh Kamath said.
The company maintained a steady momentum in mobile money business, adding 2.1 million new M-Pesa customers and achieving revenue growth of 14.2 per cent year over year to Sh62.91 billion.
M-Pesa now contributes 28 percent of Safaricom’s service revenue from 20.9 per cent in FY 2015, highlighting its central position as a key growth driver alongside mobile data, and displacing traditional voice and SMS.
The sustained demand for data remains a key growth driver for the company, with mobile data revenue increasing by 24 percent to Sh36.36 billion.