Interim Chairperson of Vodacom Tanzania Plc Board of Directors-Margaret Ikongo (middle) speaking to the press at the company's AGM in Dar es Salaam at the end of the week. With Ikongo are Vodacom Tanzania Plc Managing Director, Hisham Hendi and Finance Director, Jacques Marais.

Vodacom Tanzania said it has closed the 2019-20 financial year positively, and will pay TZS427.5-billion in dividends to its equity shareholders, out of which TZS400-billion is special dividend and TZS27.5-billion is final dividend for the financial year ended 31 March 2020.

According to a statement by the operator, it has spent over TZS327.7-billion spent on more than 120 local suppliers and partner companies in Tanzania and over TZS1.1-billion directed at corporate social investments.

The operator added that over the last financial year, Vodacom recorded growth in service revenue, which was largely driven by data and use of its M-Pesa service. M-Pesa revenue grew by 7.4%, contributing TZS358.2-billion in total turnover while data revenue grew by 9.8%, raking in a total of TZS180.8-billion.

Interim Chairperson of Vodacom’s Board of Directors - Margaret Ikongo - expressed optimism over the company’s performance despite service barring to over 2.9 million customers in line with biometric registration requirements using NIDA identification:

“Despite a challenging year from both competitive forces in the market as well as the regulatory environment, the company recorded sound operational performance building from its commercial momentum from the previous year. We invested TZS 154.6 billion in our network and IT infrastructure to ensure customers benefit from superior services and network experience across the country. The result is that we have maintained subscriber revenue and market share leadership in both GSM and mobile money, reaching a total of 15.5 million subscribers and 10.1 million customers respectively,” said Ikongo.

Vodacom’s Managing Director, Hisham Hendi, said that he attributes the company’s positive results to the successful execution of its strategies: “In the last financial year, data traffic grew by 14.6%, with significant growth coming in from 4G traffic. This reflects strong demand for mobile data services and proves our case in enhancing customers’ data experience through sustained investment in our network infrastructure, offering low-cost smartphones, as well as affordable data services.”

The operator also expanded its M-Pesa ecosystem through innovative products and services, which saw an increase in both subscriber and revenue share