Vodacom upgraded its 2030 ambition for financial services customers to 130 million, from 120 million at the end of its 2026 financial year. The transaction value processed reached $525.6bn through the year, up 16.6%.
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Vodacom Group added 26 million customers in the year to March 31, more than doubling its annual 2030 target of 10 million customers and bringing its total customer base to 237.3 million across eight markets.
This was disclosed by Vodacom CEO Shameel Joosub at the release of the group's annual financial results on Monday, which revealed a 22.9% increase in headline earnings per share, reaching 1,053 cents. Additionally, the final dividend was raised by 20.9% to 405 cents per share, resulting in a total dividend for the year of 735 cents, an 18.5% increase.
The market reacted favourably to these results, with the share price rising by a solid 3.75% to R151,64 on the JSE on Monday morning, while the broader JSE All Share Index was down by 0.24%.
Service revenue increased by 10.6% in rands and by 12.9% on a normalised basis, comfortably exceeding their double-digit medium-term target. In South Africa, service revenue grew by 2.1%, supported by an improving prepaid trend in the fourth quarter, strong data demand, and continued growth in beyond mobile services.
There were strong performances in Egypt, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Lesotho, alongside resilience in South Africa and Mozambique.
“This scale is driving greater connectivity, productivity, and financial inclusion, and underpins our decision to increase our Vision 2030 customer ambition to 275 million, reflecting confidence that the growth opportunity remains far from fully realised,” said Joosub.
He said that with headline earnings and free cash flow each growing by more than 20%, the benefits of their revenue and geographic diversification were evident, even amid a complex and dynamic macroeconomic environment.
The year was also marked by two significant transactions aimed at accelerating connectivity across the group’s footprint. In December, an agreement was reached to acquire an additional 20% stake in Safaricom, Kenya’s largest telecoms provider.
“This transaction reinforces our commitment to the high-growth East African markets of Kenya and Ethiopia. The closing of this transaction is subject to a court process in Kenya,” Joosub explained.
Separately, in December, the acquisition of a stake in Maziv, a South African fibre business, was finalised, unlocking opportunities to accelerate fibre deployment and expand access to high-quality connectivity, particularly in historically underserved communities.
“Delivering sustainable shareholder value beyond these transactions is critically important to us. In the year, we expanded the return on capital employed (ROCE) to 27.5% (up from 23.5%) and grew the dividend by 18.5%,” he added.
Joosub highlighted that Egypt delivered an impressive performance, with local-currency service revenue and EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) growth of 36.2% and 44.5%, respectively, contributing 29.7% to group EBITDA.
The International business achieved service revenue growth of 14.4% on a normalised basis, with double-digit local-currency growth across Tanzania, DRC, and Lesotho.
International business EBITDA increased 27.8% in rands. South Africa's EBITDA returned to growth in the second half of the financial year, having been impacted by a one-off settlement agreement in the first half.
Safaricom's service revenue growth in shillings was up by 11.5%, EBITDA increased by 27.9%, and net income rose by 37.0%. Safaricom contributed R4.6 billion to group operating profit, an increase of 38.3%.
This result was underpinned by sustained operational excellence in Kenya and improving scale in Ethiopia, where the number of customers was up by 54.2% to 13.6 million, and losses narrowed as the business continued to scale.
Financial services customers increased by 17.4% to 103 million, including Safaricom, supported by growth across payments, insurance, savings, lending, and merchant services.
The group upgraded its 2030 ambition for financial services customers to 130 million, up from 120 million. The transaction value processed reached $525.6bn, reflecting a 16.6% increase.
Beyond mobile services, which include financial services, fixed, digital, and IoT, generated R29.8bn, contributing 22.3% of group service revenue and demonstrating steady progress towards the ambition of approaching 30% by 2030.
Approximately R23.6bn was invested in capital expenditure, with 3,041 new 4G and 6,160 new 5G sites rolled out. Some 18.8 million smartphones were added during the year, lifting smartphone penetration across the group to 68.6%, supported by progress in handset affordability innovations.
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