November 4, 2016/Reuters

By George Obulutsa

Kenya’s Safaricom said on Friday that earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) for the first half of the year are up 30.8 percent on the same time last year, at 50.8 billion shillings ($502 million).

The company’s net income in the same period was 23.9 billion shillings, Chief Financial Officer Sateesh Kamath told an investor briefing.

Revenue from its mobile money service, known as M-Pesa, rose 33.7 percent to 25.9 billion shillings from 19.35 billion shillings a year earlier.

The figures for the telecom company, which is 40 percent owned by Britain’s Vodafone and has Kenya’s biggest subscriber base, cover the period from April 1 to Sept. 30.

The company is also increasing its guidance for the full year’s EBITDA to between 94 billion to 97 billion shillings, said Chief Executive Officer Bob Collymore.

The guidance for the year to end in March 2017 had previously been between 89 billion and 92 billion shillings.