Vodacom said its South African prepaid business is growing again. The news came one day after rival MTN reported another drop in its prepaid customers.
Vodacom South Africa’s prepaid mobile customer revenue rose 1.7% to R13.4 billion in the six months to 30 September 2026. The group shared the figures in its interim results on Tuesday, TechCentral reported.
CEO Shameel Joosub said Vodacom had delivered on its “commitment to return prepaid to growth”.
Growth picked up during the period. It was 0.4% in the first quarter and 3.1% in the second quarter, according to Vodacom.
Vodacom’s prepaid base stayed at 39.2 million customers. The company added 400 000 customers in the quarter.
MTN South Africa told a different story. Its prepaid base fell 6.9% year on year to 27.4 million in the nine months to September. Its prepaid service revenue dropped by 3%.
Vodacom said data is behind the recovery. It added that the second quarter also got a once-off boost from content services.
Prepaid data revenue grew 9.7% to R7.9 billion. Voice made up 27% of prepaid service revenue, down from 32% a year earlier.
Data traffic rose 40.2%. Average use per smart device went up 32% to 7.8GB a month. Average revenue per prepaid user rose 3.5% to R59.
The number of data customers fell 4.3% to 25.7 million. Vodacom said this was because customers are moving their spending onto one main SIM card.
Vodacom South Africa’s total service revenue grew 1.9% to R32.3 billion. Contract customers rose 2.4% to 7.1 million. Contract revenue went up 2.2%, helped by price increases.
Vodacom Business grew its service revenue by 1%. Its cloud, hosting and security services grew by 10.8%.
Cost cuts lifted South African earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation by 10.5% to R17.1 billion. The result was also helped by a once-off cost from the year before falling away.
The margin reached 37.4%, the highest since the 2023 financial year. Vodacom expects to spend a record of about R12 billion on capital projects in South Africa in its 2027 financial year.
At group level, revenue rose 25.6% to R102.5 billion. This was boosted by adding Safaricom to the books. Vodacom took a controlling 55% stake in the Kenyan operator at the end of June.
Headline earnings per share rose 25.7%. The interim dividend rose 7.6% to 355c, which reflects Vodacom’s lower payout policy. Egypt grew service revenue by 36.3% in local currency.
The group now has 250 million customers. Of these, 108 million use its financial services.
The Safaricom deal is still caught up in court. In September, Kenya’s high court cancelled the sale of the Kenyan government’s 15% stake, which is the core of the deal.
The court of appeal has ordered that things stay as they are until a fast-tracked appeal is heard. Vodacom said it expects an appeal date to be set before the end of December.
Source: this article is based on reporting by TechCentral. Image: TechCentral. Written with the help of AI and published by the Tzaneen Voice Technology desk. See our Editorial Standards.
Werner Jacobs covers technology for Tzaneen Voice. Werner reports on mobile networks, data prices, internet access, smartphones, apps, AI, cybersecurity and South African tech companies. Each story explains what a new product, price change or policy means for ordinary users in South Africa.