KenGen up revenue by 11pc in H2
By Nicholas.Waitathu, March 2, 2023
Power generator Kenya Electricity Generating Company PLC (KenGen) posted an 11 per cent growth in revenue to hit Sh27.5 billion for the six months ending December 31, 2022 from Sh24.7 billion registered the previous year.
Growth in revenue follows higher energy sales due to increased geothermal production capacity, with the recently commissioned 86MW Olkaria I pushing the growth.
Further, this was realised due to additional Unit 6 geothermal power plant that saw growth in sale of electricity units from 4,006GWhs in 2021 to 4,200GWhs in the period ending December 2022.
Net profit
However, net profit for the six months declined by 3.3 per cent to stand at Sh3.26 billion from Sh3.37 billion posted the previous year.
The slight dip is attributed to an increase in finance cost over the same period where finance income also sunk to Sh1.03 billion from Sh1.04 billion.
“Finance costs rose from Sh897 million to Sh1.17 billion owing to the expiry of a moratorium on some of the borrowings as part of COVID-19 relief measures by financiers,” KenGen noted in its financial statement.
The half-year results come against a prolonged drought which is one of the longest in recent history and KenGen says it has affected its hydro generation capacity due to the low water levels resulting from poor rains across successive seasons.
“In previous years, we would be having serious scenarios of power rationing affecting the entire country at a time like now when the rains have failed,” said KenGen Ag. Managing Director and CEO, Abraham Serem.
Serem expressed confidence and satisfaction with the performance of the company during the period under review saying the company’s fundamentals were strong enough to support business growth into the future.
Meanwhile, KenGen has also announced the appointment of Julius Migosi Ogamba as its new board chairman to replace Samson Mwathethe who previously served as Kenya’s Chief of Defence Forces (CDF) between 2015 and 2019.
In the notice, the firm also announced the appointment of Ms Josephine Koisaba, Stephen Mutai and William Rahedi as new independent and non-executive directors of the board with effect from February 28.