According to Safaricom Ethiopia, the number of registered M-PESA users increased by 245 percent to 10.8 million as of December 2024, from 3.1 million in December 2023. Cross-border money transfers and airtime purchases were the main drivers of this rise.
The total revenue of M-PESA decreased by a staggering 74 percent to roughly $75,969 in the nine months preceding December 2024, from roughly $297,674 in the same time in 2023, despite the increase in the number of customers.
While transaction volume rose by 1,023 percent to 124.8 million transactions, the overall transaction value dropped by 30 percent to around $113.95 million.
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In August 2023, Safaricom extended its M-PESA Global service to Ethiopia, enabling cross-border money transfers with M-PESA. Interestingly, M-PESA accounted for around 20 percent of airtime top-ups, in contrast to Kenya’s penchant for using the platform for merchant payments and cash transfers.
M-PESA’s notable advancements in Ethiopia’s mobile money industry
Safaricom noted notable advancements in Ethiopia’s mobile money industry since the introduction of M-PESA in its quarterly report.
In December 2024, the average revenue per user increased by 13 percent to over $1.00, while the number of 90-day active consumers increased by 64 percent year over year to 7.1 million.
Mobile data accounted for 76.4 percent of the total service revenue, or roughly $37.32 million, which increased by 79 percent to approximately $48.84 million. Voice income rose 28 percent year over year to about $6.74 million, while messaging revenue doubled to about $471,000.
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The average data consumption per chargeable client increased from 3.6GB in Q3 FY24 to 6.6GB in Q3 FY25, representing an 82.6 percent increase, and the number of one-month active mobile data consumers jumped by 141 percent year over year to 4.4 million.
While merchants climbed by 177 percent to 119,500, M-PESA agents increased by 17 percent to 29,200.
To reach 55 percent coverage by June 2025, the business plans to deploy 3,101 base stations, which now cover 48.5 percent of Ethiopia’s population.