A 14 per cent rise in annual service revenue at Kenya’s Safaricom to KES178 billion ($1.8 billion) was mostly powered by the M-Pesa mobile money service, as well as mobile data.

The money service contributed KES41.5 billion of revenue in the 12 months to end-March 2016, an increase of 27 per cent over the previous year, while mobile data rose by an even more impressive 43 per cent to KES21 billion, said the operator.

Safaricom, in which Vodafone holds a 40 per cent stake, revealed that the growth in M-Pesa revenue was the result of an increase in both its total customer base and number of transactions.

There was a 20 per cent increase in 30-day active users to 16.6 million, while the number of chargeable transactions per 30-day active users grew by 16 per cent.

Total full-year revenue at the operator, which includes handset and other revenue as well as services, rose by 20 per cent to KES196 billion. Net income increased by 20 per cent to KES38 billion.