Vodacom’s total financial services customers, including Safaricom, rose by 12.9% or 6.6 million to 57.7 million in the year ended 31 March 2021. The Vodafone-owned telco said financial services now generates revenue of R19.3 billion.
The group said service revenue generated from Financial Services was up by 18.9% to R2.4 billion.
“Our Financial Services’ result reflects our execution capability in this space. Revenue growth was underpinned by our Airtime Advance product, where we advanced R12.0 billion in airtime during the year, an increase of 21.1%,” said Shameel Joosub, Vodacom Group CEO.
“The number of Airtime Advance customers increased 17.3% to 10.8 million. Insurance policies increased by 8.3% to 2.1 million.”
Through M-Pesa, Vodacom now processes $24.5 billion (R366.4 billion) a month in transaction value across our International markets, including Safaricom, up 63.5%.
In South Africa, Vodacom said service revenue grew by 7% on the back of increased data usage, our highly successful summer campaign and demand for financial services – collectively helping to offset numerous initiatives aimed at delivering greater value to customers, including tariff reductions of up to 40% at the beginning of the financial year and the successful launch of Vodabucks, our behavioural loyalty programme.
South Africa’s Financial Services’ business and M-Pesa delivered service revenue of R6.9 billion, up 15.0%, and contributed 8.9% of consolidated service revenue.
“We remain focused on entrenching Vodacom Group as a leading pan-African technology company through our investments into financial, digital and lifestyle services as these increasingly provide opportunities to enhance our relationship with the 123.7 million customers we serve across our footprint,” said Joosub.
“In particular, we are excited about our partnership with Alipay and the imminent launch of our single lifestyle app, VodaPay, in South Africa. Our super-app will offer services ranging from loans and savings, seamless QR and person-to-person payments, to entertainment
and personalised shopping experiences, promoting greater financial inclusion.
“We see this super-app as a precursor to M-Pesa’s evolution, supporting accelerated growth across our financial services’ businesses and assisting us in connecting the next 100 million African customers so that no one is left behind.”
Vodacom said it already provides financial services to 57.7 million customers, including Safaricom, with its ‘nano’ payments, lending and savings solutions supporting financial inclusion.
“We see significant opportunities ahead, in both our Consumer and Vodacom Business segments, across digital and financial services, as we enhance our existing AI capabilities and real-time management information systems with our landmark Alipay agreement,” said Joosub.
