Vodacom Tanzania rakes in 5.1bn/- profit in 2022 driven by M-Pesa, data

Vodacom Tanzania has reported stronger than expected Profit After Tax (PAT) of 5.1bn/- in 2022 as compared to a loss of 3.5bn/- posted during the corresponding period in 2021 driven by a strong performance across M-Pesa,data and fixed revenue, the company said.

The Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange (DSE) listed company’s total revenue also grew by 14.2% to 281.8bn/-while its service revenue increased by 13.9% to 277.7bn/-.

According to the company’s Quarterly report for the quarter ended December 31, 2022 the company’s service revenue performance in the quarter was however partly offset by pressure on voice with a 21.3% decline in average price per minute, a result of heightened competition on voice bundles.

The Vodacom Tanzania Managing Director Philip Besiimire, said the company’s cost transformation initiatives continued to generate savings last year that helped offset cost pressures related to the global challenges, such as fuel price escalations and chipset shortages.

“From a profitability perspective, we generated 26.4bn/- operating profit being a 33.8% increase. The operating profit was supported by revenue growth and cost containment initiatives, partly offset by 6.7% increase in depreciation and amortisation expenses, reflecting additional investment made in our network including the newly acquired spectrum,” Besiimire said.

Proper execution of Vodacom Tanzania’s customer base growth and experience strategy helped the leading telecom company in Tanzania to grow its customer base by 6.0% to 16.3 million last year.

According to the company’s financial performance report for 2022, the company’s data customers increased by 10.5% to 8.4 million while its M-Pesa customers increased 11.8% to 8.0 million.

“Our machine learning capabilities continued to facilitate multi-product offerings as we leverage our system of advantage, delivering an improved customer experience through personalisation. Our efforts culminated in us maintaining our customer satisfaction leadership measured through the Net Promoter Score (NPS),” he said.

He added, “Looking forward, we are encouraged with our current business performance and we will continue to focus on capturing business opportunities amidst intense competition, to ensure that we deliver business growth and generate value to our shareholders,” he said.

Besiimire noted that his company is committed to working towards its purpose of connecting Tanzanians towards a better future adding that the company will continue investing in its network particularly data infrastructure.

“This will expand our customer reach and avail access to high speed data services, which in turn provides our customers with the best customer experience. To this end, we will continue rolling out our 5G network and fixed access services to serve both consumer and business segments,” Besiimire added.

He said that in addition to investing in enabling infrastructure,  the company will continue to work towards improving our customer experience and making our services accessible to all, supporting inclusivity.