Egypt’s largest mobile network
operator by market share, Vodafone Egypt is reported to have made a significant
contribution to Vodacom Group’s revenue in the quarter ended in June. Vodacom reported performance for the quarter,
saying group revenue increased 36.9% to $1.98 billion (R35.7bn), boosted by
Vodafone Egypt.
In the period, Vodafone Egypt's
revenue from financial services more than doubled, and data surged by 43.2% due
to successful Ramadan and summer campaigns. The telco closed the quarter with
46 million consumer and enterprise customers. The
company is also a broad mobile wallet provider through Vodafone Cash. In
the current reporting period, Vodafone Egypt delivered service revenue of $377
million (R6.8bn), contributing 23.6% of Vodacom Group's service revenue.
Chief Executive Officer of Vodacom Group, Shameel Joosub attributed the boost in
revenue to various factors, a primary driver being the outstanding performance
of Vodafone Egypt. The revenue surge was primarily fueled by substantial growth in financial
services and a remarkable 43.2% increase in data traffic, which resulted from
successful Ramadan and summer campaigns.
Moreover, group service
revenue grew by 43.8% or 9.9% when Vodafone Egypt is excluded (4.3%). South
Africa’s service revenue grew by 3.9%, which was underpinned by the contract
segment, fixed and financial services. Joosub noted that the group is making
headway in its plans to mitigate the effects of load shedding.
“In South Africa, our R4.0 billion investment over four
years to mitigate the impacts of load shedding continues to pay dividends. We
now invest more than R11.0 billion a year into our South Africa infrastructure
alone, which has resulted in industry-leading network availability during
elevated levels of power outages and ultimately contributed to the 3.9% increase
in service revenue in our largest market,” he said.
In addition, he said that
financial services remain a clear strategic priority for the group and led to a
46.2% increase in revenue to surpass the R3 billion mark in a quarter for the
first time. He said that this was due to a strong performance in South Africa
and M-Pesa, and its new services, including loans and merchant services.
