Vodacom’s group revenue for the year ended 31 March 2025 was R152,2-billion, up 1,1%.
Group service revenue declined 0,1% in rands, but increased 11,2% on a normalised basis, above the group’s medium-term target; and financial services revenue increased 7,6% to R14-billion, contributing 11,6% to group service revenue.
Group EBITDA declined 1,1% to R55,5-billion but grew 7,8% on a normalised basis.
The group now serves a combined 211,3-million customers and 87,7-million financial services customers, including Safaricom on a 100% basis.
Shameel Joosub, Vodacom Group CEO, comments: “As we draw the curtain on our Vision 2025 strategy, I am immensely proud of the progress we have made over the past five years in delivering on our targets. This was achieved despite a challenging macroeconomic environment marked by a global health crisis, currency volatility, geopolitical tensions, inflationary pressures and protracted energy disruptions in South Africa.
“Through it all, our purpose – connecting people for a better future – has remained our true north, gathering a momentum of its own across each of the markets where we operate,” Joosub says.
“Over the five-year period, we significantly expanded geographic and product diversification resulting in the number of customers using our networks, increasing from 115,5-million (FY2020) to 211,3-million (FY2025), while financial services customers rose from 53,2-million to 87,7-million, including Safaricom, over the same period.
“That said, 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 260-million and financial services customer base to 120-million. 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.”
Part of Vodacom’s Vision 2030 is to upgrade medium-term targets for Group service revenue and EBITDA from high single-digit to double-digit growth. “Given significant currency volatility, I am particularly impressed with the strong finish the Group produced in the last six months, supporting the confidence we communicated in November last year that the organisation is poised for a stronger second half performance,” says Joosub.
“Group service revenue grew by a robust 11,2% on a normalised basis, highlighting the resilience of our diversified portfolio and our strong commercial execution. We closed the year with 8,2-million additional customers across our footprint – a 4% increase that underscores our relentless focus on customer-centricity, network reliability and digital inclusion.”
Joosub adds that recent currency market stability, particularly in Egypt, bodes well for the Group’s performance in the foreseeable future, as does the resilient performance in South Africa and the outstanding, continued growth in Egypt and Tanzania. As
“As one might expect, our businesses in Mozambique and DRC have been impacted by post-election tensions and conflict in eastern DRC respectively,” he adds. “With momentum behind peace efforts in both countries, we are hopeful of improved prospects into FY2026. We remain particularly encouraged by the strong performance in Egypt, which delivered a stellar 45,2% increase in local currency service revenue, buoyed by increased uptake of Vodafone Cash and the growing demand for mobile and fixed connectivity.
“With over 50 million customers and a significant improvement in net promoter scores, Egypt now accounts for 23% of Group service revenue. The return to currency stability is expected to underscore a more positive macroeconomic trajectory.”
Vodacom’s South African business demonstrated continued resilience, achieving service revenue growth of 2,3%, led by a recovery in the prepaid segment, sustained data traffic growth of over 36,4%, and the increasing contribution of our beyond mobile services.
“These services – encompassing financial and digital services, fixed and IoT – contributed R11,2-billion, or 17,8% of South Africa’s service revenue,” Joosub says. “The successful execution of seasonal campaigns, combined with an industry leading response to power grid stability, supported an increase in EBITDA of 2,3% in South Africa, while we invested R11,6-billion to further enhance network resilience and spectrum efficiency.
“Consistent with our Group-wide focus on sharing, we have approached the Competition Commission in South Africa to advance meaningful sharing opportunities with MTN South Africa, under the provisions of government’s Energy Users Block Exemption regulation.”
The Group’s International business, spanning across DRC, Lesotho, Mozambique and Tanzania, achieved 7,1% normalised service revenue growth.
Over the past five years, Vodacom has continued to invest significantly in infrastructure and expects to spend more than R20-billion in capital expenditure in the new financial year.