AfricaPress-Tanzania: VODACOM Tanzania’s data penetration has reached almost 52 per cent thanks to sustained network investment. The firm said in a statement that the data users have increased by 139, 000 to 7,881,000 at end of last December which is 51.9 per cent of its total customer based at 15,171,000.
Vodacom, the leading and only listed telco at Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange (DSE) attributed the achievement to also targeted data campaigns and superior services.
“[The] Increased data penetration [was] achieved through sustained network investment, targeted data campaigns and enhanced data experience for customers,” the telco statement said.
The statement also said Vodacom managed to add 139,000 data customers during last year quarter four which were driven by their “strong commercial execution”.
“We delivered a strong commercial performance in the quarter on the back of the continued success of our personalised bundles offering to customers through our innovative ‘Just 4 You’ platform,” the firm said.
Last January, some 600,000 customers were barred after the introduction of biometric simcard registration. The move saw Voda’s data customers declined by 5.8 per cent to 7.9 million year-on-year.
“Data services remain a key growth driver and are central to our commitment of connecting Tanzanians to a better future. “Our sustained investment programme, aimed at delivering a better data experience for customers continues to yield results and is evidenced by the 59.7 per cent increase in data usage per customer reaching 1.4GB per month,” Vodacom said.
The firm said the recently data-based campaigns have paid off and resulted in a healthy increase in customers in the quarter four (Q4) as they continue to claw back customers barred last January by heightened regulatory requirements.
However, Vodacom said barring of 2.9 million customers continues to weigh on its yearon-year growth rate. “We continue to deliver value to customers focusing on segmented offers using our CVM [Customer Value Management] platform and expanded M-Pesa services,” the statement said.
CVM improved the Average revenue per user (ARPU) performance compared with the previous quarter despite intense competition and the suspension of maintenance fee-charging on dormant accounts, in line with the consumer protection regulation.
Meanwhile, M-Pesa customers reached 7.4 million, representing 49.1 per cent of the telco customer base. “Through on-going enhancements,” Voda said, “we continue to lead the mobile money industry with the customer market share of 40.9 per cent.
The telco claimed that their international money transfer business continued to play an important role in facilitating financial inclusion with the growth of more than 300 per cent in receipts to over 130bn/- and remittances exceeding 17bn/- which was an increase of over 30 per cent.
