Connecting Africa is part of the Informa Tech Division of Informa PLC

This site is operated by a business or businesses owned by Informa PLC and all copyright resides with them. Informa PLC's registered office is 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG. Registered in England and Wales. Number 3099067.

FinTech

Vodacom Boosts Annual Revenues, Subs Numbers

Article Image
Vodacom boosted its group revenues by 4.3% year-on-year to ZAR 90.1 billion ($6.31 billion) for its full financial year thanks mainly to strong international growth but its annual profits dipped due to the implementation of the black economic empowerment (BEE) ownership deal, which involved the issuance of new shares, and lower data fees.

The operator's earnings report for the 12 months to March 31 showed that revenues in South Africa, its home and largest market, grew by a modest 2.1% to reach ZAR 55.7 billion ($3.9 billion), but the international business increased by 15.6%.

The operator's customer base added 6 million to reach 110 million (including its share of Safaricom's customers), an increase of 5.8% from a year ago. It also noted that it added 1.1 million data users, an increase that helped deliver a 25.8% growth in data revenue.

Group level net profit suffered a minor decline of 0.8% to ZAR 15.4 billion ($1.08 billion). The company believes the dip was due in part to reducing data prices (now 37% lower on average compared with a year earlier) as well as the impact of the ZAR 16.4 billion ($1.15 billion) BEE deal, which Vodacom believes is "the largest deal of its kind in the ICT sector."

Despite the dip in profits, Vodacom's stock gained more than 3% on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) to hit 11,497 cents.

Shameel Joosub, Vodacom Group CEO (pictured), believes the impact of the two extraordinary items masked "an otherwise solid operational performance for the Group, where service revenue grew by 5.0%, led by strong performance in our International portfolio. Excluding one off BEE costs, Group headline earnings per share (HEPS) rose by 4.2%."

Shameel Joosub, Vodacom Group CEO: 'We expect the solid momentum from our digital services platforms to continue.'
Shameel Joosub, Vodacom Group CEO: "We expect the solid momentum from our digital services platforms to continue."

Safaricom's contribution has been highlighted in the result announcement, especially the material impact of mobile finance service M-PESA. Vodacom said it is due to "conclude the acquisition of the M-PESA brand and platform related assets from Vodafone through a joint agreement with Safaricom… we expect this will further accelerate our mobile money growth plans in Africa. The commercialization of our recently-launched payment gateway and digital wallet will assist in sustaining Financial Services growth in South Africa."

"Looking ahead, we continue to make good progress on our key strategic pillars. We expect the solid momentum from our digital services platforms to continue. Further, the strategic partnerships being formed by our Enterprise business will strengthen our IoT offers and Enterprise propositions, ultimately to the benefit of consumers," Joosub added.

— Wei Shi, Site Editor, Connecting Africa

Innovation hub

Story

Hot startup of the month: Nigeria's Tech Herfrica

Connecting Africa's hot startup is Nigeria's Tech Herfrica, a social impact organization that focuses on the digital and financial inclusion of women and girls in rural areas of Nigeria.

Story

Omdia View: February 2024

Highlights in February 2024 in the Middle East and Africa included 5G launches in Senegal and 5G trials in Egypt as well as Kenya's first 5G MVNO. Airtel also launched a new wholesale connectivity business while MTN and Huawei are planning a joint Innovation Technology Lab in South Africa – that and more in this month's Omdia View.

More Innovation hub

Latest video

More videos

Partner perspectives

All Partner Perspectives

Sponsored video

More videos

Industry announcements

More Industry announcements

Upcoming events

Africa Tech Festival 2024
November 11-14, 2024
Cape Town, South Africa
More Upcoming events

Africa Tech Perspectives

Story

Uber's Marjorie Saint-Lot on inclusion and sustainability in Africa

Uber's Country Manager for Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire, Marjorie Saint-Lot, shares how the ride-hailing company is approaching public-private partnerships, environmentally friendly initiatives and gender inclusion in Africa.

Story

The 100 most influential African leaders in 2023

A new report from Africa Tech Festival and Connecting Africa puts a spotlight on the top 100 African leaders in the telecoms and technology sector in 2023.

Story

Deep dive into East Africa's tech startup ecosystem

New survey reveals a lack of access to investors, reliance on international VCs and global recession trends as the biggest barriers for East African tech startups to access funds.

More Africa Tech perspectives

Guest Perspectives

Story

Omdia View: February 2024

By Omdia Analysts

Highlights in February 2024 in the Middle East and Africa included 5G launches in Senegal and 5G trials in Egypt as well as Kenya's first 5G MVNO. Airtel also launched a new wholesale connectivity business while MTN and Huawei are planning a joint Innovation Technology Lab in South Africa – that and more in this month's Omdia View.

Story

Omdia View: January 2024

By Omdia Analysts

Highlights in January 2024 in the Middle East and Africa included a $200 million fintech deal between MTN and Mastercard as well as 5G network trials by Telecom Egypt – that and more in this month's Omdia View.

More Guest Perspectives

Like us on Facebook

Newsletter Sign Up


Sign Up
Tag id test-002