Safaricom posted a record of Ksh100 billion net income and its highest-ever dividend in FY2026 results

Twenty-five years after launching in Kenya, Safaricom used its FY2026 results, released in early May, to post the best numbers in company history.

Group net income came in around Ksh100 billion, a jump of well over 50% on the year, while service revenue crossed the Ksh414 billion mark for the twelve months to March 31.

The Kenyan business remained the core engine, with service revenue up 10% to Ksh400.8 billion and EBIT climbing over 15%. Shareholders were the immediate beneficiaries: the board approved a dividend of Ksh2.00 per share, a record high and a 66.7% jump from the prior year, worth roughly Ksh80.1 billion in total.

M-Pesa continued its evolution beyond payments, with the Ziidi money market fund growing assets under management by over 115% and a new share-trading feature, Ziidi Trader, pulling in tens of thousands of active users within months of launch.

Ethiopia remained the one soft spot, still loss-making, but the losses narrowed meaningfully year-on-year as the subsidiary's commercial momentum improved.

For a company that represents an outsized share of the entire NSE's market capitalisation, a result this strong on results day rarely stays contained to Safaricom's own share price, it tends to lift sentiment across the whole exchange.