Vodacom spreads its wings to reach new African markets
The mobile operator takes its financial services into new African markets
Network operator Vodacom wants to take its mobile money offering to new African markets while building out its financial services units in SA and other existing markets, says CEO Shameel Joosub. At last count, Vodacom had 33.3-million M-Pesa customers in Kenya (through its stake in Safaricom), Tanzania, Mozambique, Lesotho and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The mobile money unit’s growth would come from "deepening the penetration in the existing markets as well as opening up new markets", Joosub said. More products Vodacom’s mobile money service, which was facilitating more than R100bn worth of payments each month, was becoming "a more material part of our business", he said. Mobile operators are increasingly providing financial services to diversify revenue. MTN, with 22-million mobile money customers in 14 markets at the end of 2017, has said it wants to introduce more sophisticated products, partially through a tie-up with Ecobank. Joosub said Vodacom would focus on getting e...
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