Vodacom has unveiled Vision 2030 to shareholders and prospective investors — a five-year strategy that sets out the mobile operator’s ambition to deliver double-digit growth in earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation, and amortisation (Ebitda).
The company noted that this represented an upgrade from its existing medium-term target framework of high single-digit Ebitda growth.
In a presentation to investors, Vodacom Group CEO Shameel Joosub and Group CFO Raisibe Morathi explained that the company expects to achieve this result through a combination of measures.
These include a focus on customer growth, capital and cost efficiency, and debt reduction.
Vodacom said it planned to add another 50 million customers across the group in the next five years, growing by 23.8% from 210 million to 260 million subscribers.
It noted that Africa is expected to add around 800 million to the global workforce by 2050 and will be home to the largest and youngest population globally.
Vodacom said it aimed to grow its fintech customers by 35 million — an increase of 41% from its current base of 85 million.
The company said it also expects smartphone penetration to grow from its current level of 63% to over 75% in 2030.
In addition to growing its customer base, Vodacom said it aimed to boost earnings in hard currency by managing costs, maintaining or improving its return on capital employed, and reducing debt.
Vodacom said it would maintain a leverage ceiling of 1.5× net debt to Ebitda, and a capital intensity of 13% to 14.5%.
Additionally, Vodacom said it aims to increase revenue by over 32% from R151 billion to over R200 billion.
It also said it would like to diversify its operations so that South Africa contributes less than 50% to the group’s operating profit. Currently, South Africa contributes 59%.
Vodacom released a trading statement for the quarter ended 31 December 2024 earlier this month, reporting 1.6% revenue growth across the group and a 1.4% decline in service revenue.
Vodacom South Africa recorded revenue growth of 4.7% — up from R22.80 billion the year before to R23.87 billion.
It service revenue was R16.2 billion, up from R15.7 billion for the same period the year before — a 3.2% increase.
In addition, Vodacom South Africa reported that it increased its capital expenditure by 5.4% compared to the year before from R3.03 billion to R3.2 billion.
Joosub said Vodacom South Africa expects to invest between R11 and R11.2 billion this financial year.
“The improved Vodacom South Africa performance was underpinned by a variety of factors, including successful seasonal campaigns, improved consumer environment in the prepaid segment, and a 40.6% increase in data traffic,” said Joosub.
Average data usage per smart device increased by 37% to 5.3GB, while the number of 4G and 5G networks on Vodacom’s network increased by 4.9% to 24.5 million.
Vodacom South Africa recorded a 3.9% increase in mobile contract customer revenue to R6.1 billion, supported by a price increase in the first quarter of the year.
Its average revenue per user from mobile contract customers increased 2.3% to R306, which it also attributed to the price increase.
“We added 61,000 contract customers in the quarter, to reach a contract base of 7.0 million, up 2.0%,” said Vodacom South Africa.
The mobile network operator attributed much of the success in its prepaid segment, which delivered growth of 5.6%, to its seasonal campaigns.
It noted that the “V-UP” summer campaign resulted in 13.7 million customers actively engaging to win rewards and prizes.
“The seasonal campaigns helped capture an improved consumer spend environment with prepaid data revenue of R3.8 billion in the quarter, up 15.5%,” said Vodacom South Africa.
