Safaricom, Kenya’s largest mobile network operator, has a couple of applications meant for smartphone users in the respective app stores. These include Safaricom MyTunes, the mySafaricom app, Safaricom M-Ledger and a couple of others.
The mySafaricom app, introduced in April last year, is what the company has been heavily promoting to users over the last one year to use to access various services like purchasing data bundles, airtime, redeeming Bonga points, getting M-PESA statements and so on. Recently, the app was updated to include Safaricom’s mobile money product, M-PESA.
According to the company, over 400,000 subscribers are already using the M-PESA services on the app. This is out of the 1 million users who are already using the mySafaricom app, a figure Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore says the company is proud of and is part of its efforts to put the customer first.
The numbers are set to rise as more and more users switch to smartphones and the company continues its strong 4G push across the country.
Safaricom has since 2013 only been selling smartphones in its retail stores across the country in a move aimed at driving uptake of its data services. It has, instead, partnered with various device makers like Tecno, Samsung, Huawei and others to provide its customers quality devices at various price points.
Data-enabled devices on the Safaricom network stand at 41%, a 10 percentage point increase over last year. Safaricom has 16.6 million data subscribers (out of its 28 million strong subscriber base) who use an average of 269 megabytes of data every month and spending an average of Kshs 153 on data. This has propelled data revenues to the company to a whopping Kshs 29.3 billion.
According to the company, data prices went down by 22%.
The figures were disclosed at an investor and media briefing held at the company’s headquarters in Nairobi where its 2017 financial year results were officially released.
On the Google Play Store, the mySafaricom application has been downloaded by half a million users.
