Vodacom Group, a pan-African telecom provider with a presence in eight markets, has announced that its subscriber base has surpassed 200 million for the first time, having previously achieved 100 million in 2018. The company issued a trading update for the quarter ended 31 December, stating that its transformational influence on its customers and the economy of the countries in which it operates offers a solid platform for ensuring the long-term success of its operations.
The CEO of Vodacom Group, Shameel Joosub, applauded Vodafone Egypt, the company’s newest addition to the group, for a convincing performance. Joosub said that the acquisition of Vodafone Egypt had uplifted the Johannesburg-headquartered telco as revenue growth continues to accelerate. The performance of Vodafone Egypt resulted in a 26.8% increase in group revenue during the quarter to US$2 billion, said Joosub.
In South Africa, Vodacom reported revenue growth of 4.0% despite increased state-controlled power outages. Joosub said that the company’s network investment contributed to a 25.4% increase in 4G sites, which ultimately supported accelerating local currency revenue growth across the telco’s international business segment.
Joosub further explained that revenue from new services, such as financial and digital services, fixed and IoT, is well on track to reaching its target contribution of 25-30% over the medium term. In the quarter, the contribution of new service revenue exceeded 20% for the first time, equating to R6.2 billion. Financial services remain the largest component of new services, having grown 31.0% to R3.4 billion in the quarter, largely due to scaling new products and strong customer growth of 12.0%.
In partnership with Safaricom, Vodacom Group owns the mobile money platform M-Pesa, Africa’s largest mobile money platform by transaction value processed, with a value of close to US$100 billion in the quarter.
Looking ahead, Joosub said that the company is fully alert to the financial constraints on customers caused by the high cost of living and remains committed to delivering innovations that enhance the value it provides to customers to help alleviate the cost of living pressures. He added that the company is mindful of an evolving macro-economic environment across its footprint, including foreign exchange rate risk, and expects its business model to continue demonstrating its resilience.
