Vodacom today announced it has added 6.2 million new customers to reach a total 0f 129.9 million customers, including Safaricom on a 100% basis, in the six months to end-September 2021.
The Vodafone-owned group said its local operation delivered service revenue growth of 3.6% driven by connectivity demand, an additional 1.1 million data customers, incremental wholesale revenue and growth in our new services.
“This was an impressive result given the demanding comparative associated with lockdowns in the prior period.”
Vodacom added that financial services customers, including Safaricom on a 100% basis, reached 57.3 million in the period.
“Looking ahead, we see strong growth potential for customer adoption and target 73 million financial services customers by full year 2024,” Vodacom informed investors.
“This target, which supports financial inclusion, forms part of management’s long-term incentives. Over and above this, Egypt and Ethiopia each with populations of over 100 million people, provides transformational opportunities for M-Pesa.”
The group also reported a 4.2% increase in revenue to R49.9 billion.
While net profit from associate and joint ventures declined 36.1% to R1.6 billion, negatively impacted by an R805 million one-off deferred tax rate adjustment in the prior period and foreign exchange translation headwinds.
The group reported an interim dividend of 420cps up 1.2%.
“Vodacom Group’s decision to diversify our geographic exposure continues to pay dividends,” said Shameel Joosub, Vodacom’s CEO.
“Our strategic investment in Kenya’s Safaricom in 2017 has proven to be value accretive, generating an annual total shareholder return of 26%.”