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Safaricom Raked in Over Sh30 Million From KCPE SMS(AllAfrica Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) MOBILE Operators led by Safaricom raked in over Sh30 million on Tuesday after the release of the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education. Candidates and parents were supposed to send their index numbers to a code to get their results. By Tuesday midnight, more than 1.2 million enquiries had been sent to the code 22252, according to the Kenya National Examination Council. Each SMS cost Sh25 translating to a total of Sh30 million raised in a few hours. The number of enquirers is still going up with KNEC praising the uptake of the service. "It was utilised very well...it confirms that Kenyans have become tech savvy," KNEC chief executive Paul Wasanga said. In total 839,759 candidates sat for last year's KCPE meaning the operators could have raised Sh21 million could all the pupils have sent an enquiry. But normally a single index number is sent more than once by interested persons including parents, siblings and teachers. Safaricom officials said they could not divulge the exact number of SMSs sent on its network but was satisfied with the uptake. For the half year of this financial year, Safaricom's SMS revenues grew by 49 per cent to Sh6.35 billion from Sh4.27 billion the previous half year. Safaricom said the growth was driven by an 8 per cent increase in 30 day active users to 11.7 million and SMS based promotions such as Bonyeza Ushinde. Copyright The Star. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). |