As their service revenue in South Africa grew 7.0%, with consistent growth through the financial year, Vodacom announced a “medium-term operating profit growth target upgraded from mid-single digit to mid-to-high-single digit, on improved growth prospects for International and Safaricom.” in the media release.
“In South Africa, service revenue grew by 7.0% 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 behavioral loyalty program.”
Shameel Joosub, Vodacom Group CEO
Vodacom also announced a dividend of 410 cents per share which is a 1.2% increase from its prior financial year results. Along with a growth in service revenue in South Africa, Vodacom reported having added 8.2 million customers, to serve a combined 123.7 million customers across the group.
These numbers include the customer base of Safaricom as well, which came into a joint partnership with Vodacom in early 2020. According to the media release, the total financial services customers, including Safaricom, up 12.9% or 6.6 million to 57.7 million.
“Our strategic investment in Safaricom comprised almost 13% of our operating profit in the year. Safaricom’s local currency results reflected the impact of depressed economic activity and free M-Pesa P2P transfers, related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Positively, Safaricom’s commitment to its strategic goals supported strong platform growth for M-Pesa and higher connectivity usage. This supported a notable recovery in service revenue growth through the financial year, with fourth-quarter growth at 6.4%.”
Shameel Joosub, Vodacom Group CEO
“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.”
Shameel Joosub, Vodacom Group CEO
