Vodacom's subscriber growth nearly doubles despite challenges in Mozambique and DRC
Over the past five years, Vodacom has invested in its infrastructure and products and expects to spend another R20 billion at least over the coming five years.
Image: IOL/Independent Newspapers
Vodacom, South Africa's largest mobile network operator, has almost doubled its subscriber base over the past five years as it reaches the end of its Vision 2025 plan.
However, it is having a difficult time due to ongoing armed conflict in Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The network operator, which released its results for the year to end-March on Monday, said its customers had grown from 115.5 million in 2020 to 211.3 million now, while financial services customers rose from 53.2 million to 87.7 million, including its Safaricom unit.
'We will not be resting on our laurels and now seek to ensure we deliver against our Vision 2030 ambitions, which include growing our customer base to 260m and financial services customer base to 120m. While cementing our leadership in all forms of connectivity, we expect our Group service revenue contribution from beyond mobile to increase to 30% from 21% today,' said Shameel Joosub, Vodacom Group CEO.
Over the past five years, Vodacom has invested in its infrastructure and products and expects to spend another R20 billion at least over the coming five years. This, Joosub, said, reinforces 'commitment to connectivity, digital inclusion, and economic empowerment'.
Joosub noted that its operations in Egypt, Tanzania and South Africa benefitted from market stability. However, 'our businesses in Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of Congo have been impacted by post-election tensions and conflict in eastern DRC respectively. With momentum behind peace efforts in both countries, we are hopeful of improved prospects into financial year 2026.'
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Towards the end of last year, there was an outbreak of violence in Mozambique over concerns about fraud in the general elections that resulted in Frelimo keeping its power, which resulted in the Lebombo border between South Africa and Mozambique closing.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, the March 23 Movement, a rebel group that has been active in eastern DRC, caused armed conflicts with Congolese forces and a UN mission.
'While we remain hopeful of a recovery in Mozambique and sustained resolution in DRC, we are actively supporting our people and communities in the affected regions, including through our Foundation initiatives,' said Joosub.
Vodacom's Foundation is a corporate social investment programme that focuses on education, gender empowerment, and community development, using mobile technology to drive social change.
This company said it had also raised its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation – profit from core business operations that is a key figure for analysts – target to double digit figures. For the year under review, this metric declined 1.1% to R55.5bn but grew 7.8% on a normalised basis.
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