Vodacom Group, South Africa’s largest telecom operator, has ruled out spinning off M-PESA from Safaricom or listing it as a standalone entity despite renewed pressure from Kenyan authorities to unbundle the telco’s core businesses.
The group, which co-owns Safaricom with the Kenyan government (each holding a 40% stake), said M-Pesa’s mobile money operations are “intricately linked” to Safaricom’s value proposition.
“We’re not looking to separately list the financial service businesses,” Vodacom CEO Mohamed Joosub said during Tuesday’s earnings call. “We see it more closely linked and coupling that with loyalty going forward.”
M-PESA Powers Safaricom’s Strong HY26 Results
The statement comes just as Safaricom released its HY26 results, marking its 25th anniversary with strong financial performance. M-PESA contributed KES 88.06 billion in revenue, 45.4% of total service revenue, growing 14.0% year-on-year, driven by increased transaction volumes and merchant expansion.
Group service revenue rose 11.1% YoY to KES 199.87 billion, while net income attributable to equity holders surged 52.1% to KES 42.8 billion. Safaricom’s customer base grew 19.7% to 62.27 million, with one-month active users up 16.8% to 46.44 million.
“Our upgraded M-PESA platform, Fintech 2.0, now supports over 12,000 transactions per second,” said CEO Peter Ndegwa. “It’s a cornerstone of our ambition to become Africa’s leading purpose-led tech company by 2030.”
🇰🇪 Kenya’s Restructuring Debate Heats Up
In August, Treasury Secretary Mbadi told Bloomberg that the government was considering splitting Safaricom into three units: core telecom, towers, and M-PESA and potentially selling part of its 35% stake. A recent assessment found “huge benefit” to the state, but cabinet approval is still pending.
The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) supports the split to enhance regulatory oversight but warns it could trigger a KES 75 billion ($500 million) tax liability.
Ethiopia Expansion and Regional Strategy
Safaricom Ethiopia also posted strong growth, with service revenue more than doubling to KES 6.19 billion. Mobile data now accounts for 66.7% of its revenue mix, and one-month active customers rose 90.0% to 8.51 million.
Despite macroeconomic headwinds, Safaricom’s regional strategy remains focused on scalable fintech and connectivity solutions, with over 21,000 km of fibre laid and 1.3 million 5G customers in Kenya.
