Vodacom grew financial services customers by 11.1% to 87.7-million in the year to March, as it targets 120-million users in five years.
SA’s biggest mobile network operator, which operates in Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho and Egypt, also added 8.2-million subscribers to end the financial year at 211.3-million across all its markets.
Revenue from financial services, which provides e-commerce, payments, savings, investments, lending, insurance and wealth management services, increased 7.6% to R14bn, contributing 11.6% to total group service revenue of R120bn.
Our financial services strategy is focused on driving and deepening financial inclusion for consumers and merchants
— Shameel Joosub, Vodacom Group CEO
Overall group revenue of R152.2bn was up 1.1%. Headline earnings per share grew 1.3% to 857c.
Shameel Joosub, Vodacom Group CEO, said: “Our financial services strategy is focused on driving and deepening financial inclusion for consumers and merchants. Looking ahead, as we deepen financial inclusion across our markets, we expect to unlock new economic growth opportunities.”
In SA financial services revenue grew 7.9% to R3.4bn driven by insurance business. The company has 14.3-million financial services customers in SA, where service revenue grew 2.3% to R63bn, supported by consumer contract, mobile prepaid data and beyond mobile services.
Mobile contract customer revenue increased by 3.8% to R24.4bn. Vodacom added 152,000 contract customers to reach 7-million, up 2.2%. Prepaid mobile customers declined 13.1% to 39-million after the company cancelled inactive SIM cards.
Data traffic increased 36.4% for the year. The growth was supported by smartphone penetration and network quality. Smart devices were up by 1.5% to 32.3-million, while 4G and 5G devices increased by 3.1% to 24.4-million. The average use per smart device increased by 31.7% to 5.1GB per month.
TimesLIVE
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