Safaricom has sharply increased its interim dividend, lifting the payout by 54.5 percent in a move that broadly tracks its strong half-year earnings growth and delivers a sizeable windfall to the State ahead of its planned partial exit from the telecoms firm.
The Nairobi Securities Exchange – listed operator announced an interim dividend of Sh0.85 per share for the year ending March 2026, up from Sh0.55 per share paid in each of the previous two years. The decision was approved at a board meeting held on February 4, with shareholders on record as of February 25 set to receive payment on or around March 31.
The higher payout follows a 52.1 percent jump in half-year net profit to Sh42.7 billion, driven largely by double-digit growth in its mobile money platform, M-Pesa.
In total, Safaricom will distribute Sh34.05 billion as interim dividends, with the government earning Sh11.92 billion from its 35 percent stake. The payout comes as the State prepares to sell a 15 percent shareholding to Vodacom Group, a transaction that also includes an advance dividend of Sh40.2 billion to the Treasury, discounted from future dividend entitlements on the remaining stake.
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The scale of the interim dividend points to a higher overall payout for the current financial year. The Sh34.05 billion interim distribution already represents more than 70 percent of last year’s total dividend of Sh48.08 billion, with full-year results due in early May.
Safaricom maintains a dividend policy of paying out 80 percent of net profits and has reaffirmed this commitment despite rising borrowings. The increase supports Vodacom’s earlier projection that the advance dividend paid to the government would be recovered within two to three years.
