South Africa-based multinational mobile network operator Vodacom Group said revenue for the six months ended 30 September 2022 rose 7.7% year-on-year to ZAR53.713 billion (USD3.11 billion) and service revenue climbed 7.2% to ZAR41.729 billion. However, operating profit fell 5.6% to ZAR13.268 billion from ZAR14.058 billion and net profit dropped 9.0% to ZAR8.072 billion, with the company noting that its bottom line was impacted by start-up losses in Ethiopia and higher finance costs as interest rates normalised to pre-COVID levels. Six-month capital expenditure stood at ZAR7.599 billion, up 9.8% from ZAR6.920 billion on an annualised basis.
Group CEO Shameel Joosub noted: ‘The war in Ukraine, which followed hard on the heels of a global health crisis, continues to result in increased inflationary pressures and elevated living costs in many countries across the world, including markets where Vodacom operates.’ He also pointed to the costs related to the fledgling mobile launch in Ethiopia but added: ‘Encouragingly, the fact that it was recently announced that Safaricom Ethiopia will be awarded a financial services licence is expected to accelerate our ambition to transform lives in Africa’s second most populous country. We have already launched our network in 16 cities in Ethiopia with plans to expand services to 25 cities by April 2023, to reach our first milestone of 25% population coverage.’
At 30 September 2022 Vodacom had 132.6 million customers across the group, broken down as 45.5 million (South Africa), 16.0 million (Tanzania), 16.1 million (Democratic Republic of Congo), 10.0 million (Mozambique) and 831,000 (Lesotho). ‘Substantial investments into technology and our networks continues to resonate with customers, having attracted an additional 3.0 million customers in the period,’ Joosub said.
Get stories like this in your inbox Monday to Friday. Sign up for TeleGeography’s daily CommsUpdate email over here.