Vodacom Group has returned its South African prepaid business to growth, a day after rival MTN reported another fall in its prepaid customer base.
Vodacom South Africa’s prepaid mobile customer revenue rose 1.7% to R13.4-billion in the six months to 30 September 2026, accelerating to 3.1% in the second quarter from 0.4% in the first, the group said in its interim results on Tuesday. CEO Shameel Joosub said Vodacom had delivered on its “commitment to return prepaid to growth”.
Its prepaid base held steady at 39.2 million, with 400 000 customers added in the quarter. MTN South Africa’s prepaid base fell 6.9% year on year to 27.4 million in the nine months to September, and its prepaid service revenue fell 3%.
Data is driving the recovery, though Vodacom said the second-quarter acceleration also included a one-off benefit from content services. Its prepaid data revenue grew 9.7% to R7.9-billion, and voice fell to 27% of prepaid service revenue from 32% a year earlier. Data traffic rose 40.2%, with average usage per smart device up 32% to 7.8GB/month. Prepaid Arpu, or average revenue per user, rose 3.5% to R59.
Overall, Vodacom South Africa’s service revenue grew 1.9% to R32.3-billion. Contract customers increased 2.4% to 7.1 million.
The number of data customers fell 4.3% to 25.7 million, which Vodacom attributed to customers consolidating their spending onto a primary Sim.
Overall, Vodacom South Africa’s service revenue grew 1.9% to R32.3-billion. Contract customers increased 2.4% to 7.1 million, with contract revenue up 2.2%, helped by price increases. Vodacom Business grew service revenue by 1%, with cloud, hosting and security up 10.8%.
Cost cuts and the lapping of a one-off cost from the previous year lifted South African Ebitda (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) by 10.5% to R17.1-billion. The margin reached 37.4%, its highest since FY2023. Vodacom expects to spend about R12-billion on capital expenditure in South Africa in FY2027, a record.
At group level, revenue rose 25.6% to R102.5-billion, boosted by the consolidation of Safaricom, in which Vodacom took a controlling 55% stake at the end of June. On a pro forma basis, which includes Safaricom in the comparative period, service revenue grew 13.3% and Ebitda 18%. Headline earnings per share rose 25.7%, while the interim dividend rose 7.6% to 355c, reflecting Vodacom’s lower payout policy.
The group now has 250 million customers, 108 million of whom use its financial services. Egypt grew service revenue 36.3% in local currency.
The Safaricom deal remains in legal limbo. Kenya’s high court nullified the sale of the Kenyan government’s 15% stake, the core of the deal, in September, but the court of appeal has ordered that the status quo be maintained pending an expedited appeal. Vodacom said it expects an appeal date to be set before the end of December. – (c) 2026 NewsCentral Media
