To pay the highest-ever dividend payout of Sh80.13 billion. Safaricom has declared its highest-ever dividend payout of Sh80.13 billion, after shareholders at the company's Annual General Meeting approved a final dividend of Sh1.15 per share for the financial year ended 31 March 2026.
The total dividend for the year comes to Sh2.00 per share, following an interim dividend of Sh0.85 per share paid in March 2026, and is the largest payout in the company's history. The payout comes as Safaricom's share price continued to rise: the stock closed the financial year up 50.3 per cent, taking the company's market value to Sh1.10 trillion by 31 March 2026, and it has risen further since, with Safaricom's market capitalisation touching Sh1.44 trillion in the weeks leading into this year's AGM.
"This has been a defining year for us. We marked 25 years of connecting and driving transformation through our services and community involvement. We did this while delivering our strongest financial performance yet," Safaricom CEO, Peter Ndegwa, said. For three years running, Safaricom held its dividend steady as it absorbed the set-up costs in Ethiopia and weathered the effects of the Birr's depreciation, following the foreign exchange reforms introduced by the Ethiopian government in 2024.
This year's increase reflects a business that has come through that period of investment, with Safaricom Ethiopia now on track to break even in the coming financial year. Including this year's payout, Safaricom shareholders will have received about Sh280 billion in cumulative dividends over the past five years, a trajectory the company hopes to continue as it executes its Vision 2030.
Now in the first year of Vision 2030, Safaricom is positioning itself to grow beyond a traditional telecom operator into a broader technology company. Its priorities include making customer experience simpler and more personal, using artificial intelligence to serve customers better, expanding high-speed broadband and 4G and 5G coverage, and putting affordable smartphones into millions more hands, alongside the continued growth of M-Pesa and the wider financial services it offers.
"We were equally pleased to note the completion of the transaction increasing Vodacom Group's shareholding in Safaricom this year. It deepens a partnership that goes back to our earliest years, and gives us access to the scale, expertise and regional reach of one of Africa's leading technology groups as we build towards 2030,” chairman Adil Khawaja, said.
The shareholding changes followed Vodacom Group’s acquisition of an additional 15 per cent stake, through Vodafone Kenya Limited, from government of Kenya alongside an internal restructuring.