Shameel Joosub, Vodacom Group CEO, said service revenue has increased by 12.4% within the company's international operations, driven largely by M-Pesa and data adoption.

Joosub was commenting on the company's latest trade update for the quarter ended 30 June 2018.

According to the update, M-Pesa revenue growth, excluding currency translation effects, was 23.8%; reported at 18.1% (calculated on an IAS 18 basis).

He said, "M-Pesa continues to grow strongly and we now have 12.7 million customers (excluding Safaricom) using this service."

"In South Africa, despite a tougher economic environment, we grew service revenue by 4.9%, supported by customer growth of 9.5% to reach 43.1 million customers. This was driven by our 'Big Data' led innovations, which contributed to robust demand for personalised bundles. We sold over 600 million bundles this quarter resulting in an effective price reduction of 10% on voice minutes and 17% for data megabytes. Data revenue grew close to 10%, a pleasing performance off a bigger base, contributing more than 44% to service revenue," he added.

The mobile network operator stated its focus on network investment and expansion, particularly its 4G coverage to 81.5% - up from 75.9% a year ago.

According to the results, the company added 2.5 million customers during the quarter, including 1.5 million in South Africa and 1 million across international operations.

This means a total of 76.5 million across the Group, up 10.3% year-on-year.

In January this year, the company outlined results of its quarter ended 31 December 2017 and said growth trends within its international operations had continued to improve.

"Tanzania continues to deliver on its turnaround strategy with good revenue and customer growth, while we continued our efforts to improve customer registration processes. Mozambique and Lesotho have made solid progress on their strategic priorities of M-Pesa and data growth, delivering excellent momentum, while performance in the DRC has improved as the currency and economic environment starts to stabilise," the group adds.

Capital expenditure of R630 million was spent in the international operations during the quarter.

Results for Vodacom's associate investment in Safaricom in Kenya are disclosed on a bi-annual basis and are therefore not included in the quarterly update.