Vodacom drops 2.6 million inactive customers in South Africa

Vodacom has published a trading statement for the quarter ended 30 June 2024, reporting a 2.6 million drop in customers since March.

“The net loss of prepaid customers in the quarter was the result of churning inactive customers that were added in the second half of the previous financial year,” said Vodacom.

Vodacom’s South African business had 51.6 million customers at the end of March 2024.

Compared to June last year, Vodacom increased its South African customer base by 9.2% to nearly 49 million.

Of these, 42.1 million are prepaid customers, and 6.9 million are contract customers.

Vodacom also announced slight revenue growth for its South African business and the group as a whole.

Vodacom South Africa’s revenue grew by 1.9% to R21.8 billion, while group revenue increased by 1.5% to R36.2 billion.

Group service revenue increased by 10% on a normalised basis, while South African service revenue grew by 1.8%.

Vodacom said improved prepaid performance drove South Africa’s service revenue growth.

To this end, prepaid revenue grew by 3.5% year over year to R6.6 billion, and contract revenue grew by 3.6% year over year to just under R6 billion.

Vodacom South Africa’s average revenue per user (ARPU) dropped for prepaid customers from R58 to R50 per month year-on-year.

ARPU for contract customers grew by 1.7% year-on-year from R300 to R305 per month.

Vodacom Group CEO Shameel Joosub said the company’s diversification strategy is paying off.

“While the economic environment in recent years has been challenging, our strategy to diversify our revenue growth by product and geography is bearing fruit,” said Joosub.

“This is evidenced by the 10.0% growth in normalised Group service revenue to R29.0 billion in the first quarter, exceeding our medium-term target, as well as the 16.8% increase in normalised Group financial services revenue to R3.3 billion.”