The income statement told you whether Safaricom made money over a year. Today's question is different: on one specific date, what does Safaricom actually own, and what does it owe?
Lesson 1 covered the income statement — a story about a period of time (the year ended 31 March 2024). The balance sheet (also called the Statement of Financial Position) is different: it's a snapshot at a single date, like a photo rather than a video. Safaricom's balance sheet answers: "as at 31 March 2024, what does the business own, and what does it owe?"
Every balance sheet, for every company anywhere, follows one unbreakable rule:
Assets = Liabilities + Equity
In plain words: everything a company owns (assets) was paid for either by borrowing (liabilities — money owed to others) or by the owners' own money (equity — what belongs to shareholders). These three numbers always balance, by definition — that's literally why it's called a balance sheet.
Here is Safaricom's real, audited Statement of Financial Position as at 31 March 2024, simplified to the lines you need for this lesson.
| KShs millions | 2024 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|
| Non-current assets (property, equipment, intangibles, etc.) | 558,622.4 | 436,771.5 |
| Current assets (cash, receivables, inventory) | 82,541.9 | 72,435.5 |
| Total assets | 641,164.3 | 509,207.0 |
| Non-current liabilities (long-term borrowings, leases) | 137,594.3 | 105,463.9 |
| Current liabilities (due within a year) | 167,822.1 | 140,377.2 |
| Total liabilities | 305,416.4 | 245,841.1 |
| Total equity | 335,747.9 | 263,365.9 |
Source: Safaricom PLC Annual Report and Financial Statements 2024, p.178 (figures simplified/grouped for this lesson; audited, currency KShs millions).
Check the equation with FY2024's own numbers: liabilities (305,416.4) + equity (335,747.9) = 641,164.3 — exactly total assets. It balances, as it always must.
"Current" doesn't mean small or unimportant — it means within one year of the balance sheet date. A KShs 45 billion loan due next month is "current"; a KShs 63 billion loan due in five years is "non-current." This distinction matters because it tells you when the company needs to find cash to settle each obligation — a question later lessons on liquidity will build on directly.
It's easy to blur the balance sheet and the income statement together, so it's worth being explicit about the difference:
Notice that Safaricom's balance sheet also shows a second column, "2023" — that's the snapshot from the previous year-end (31 March 2023), included so you can see how the snapshot changed. Total equity grew from 263,365.9 to 335,747.9 over the year — one thread connecting the balance sheet back to the income statement's profit for the year, which the next lesson will trace in detail.
Next lesson, we'll connect the two statements you now know: tracing Safaricom's FY2024 profit for the year (42,658.4m) into the balance sheet, to see exactly where that profit went — and why the three statements are really one continuous story rather than three separate documents.
Primary source for this lesson's numbers: Safaricom PLC Annual Report and Financial Statements 2024. As new terms pile up across this course, the Glossary reference card is a quick place to look one up without re-reading a whole lesson.
Something unclear, or want to dig into a line item we skipped (like "what exactly is a right-of-use asset")? Ask your teacher — that's what these sessions are for.