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Phillip Jabulani Moleketi
It gives me pleasure to present
Vodacom’s Integrated report, in
my first year as Chairman. After
eight years on the Board, it is an
honour for me to be serving in this
role at such an exciting time in the
Company’s journey, as it pursues
its ambitious strategy in the
digital space.
Chairman’s
statement
This has been an eventful year for Vodacom, with some
significant developments within the Company and across
our markets, accompanied by encouraging performance
across the Group.
In August 2017, we completed the largest transaction in
our history, the R42 billion acquisition of a strategic stake
in Safaricom. The transaction has diversified our financial
profile, and positioned the Company as a serious financial
services player in Africa with R1.3 trillion moving
through the M-Pesa system, enabling us to drive further
adoption of the successful mobile money service,
M-Pesa, across our operations, and providing a very
valuable platform for delivering on our vision of
empowering a connected society.
In the same month, Vodacom Tanzania became the first
telecommunications company to list on the Dar es
Salaam Stock Exchange. This was the largest listing in the
exchange’s 19-year history, raising TZS476 billion (around
R2.9 billion), and involving the participation of more than
40 000 individual Tanzanian investors and all the major
pension funds. Vodacom’s compliance with the listing
requirements, reflects the company’s clear commitment
to contributing to Tanzania’s growth and development.
Our International operations
It has been pleasing to see the strong performance this
year throughout our International operations, despite
various regulatory, macroeconomic and/or currency-
related challenges in most of these markets. This
performance has been underpinned by good progress in
data monetisation and strong M-Pesa penetration, both
of which present significant opportunities for further
growth, supported by additional network roll-out and
an expanded product portfolio in the Enterprise space.
We believe that some of the markets are ripe for
consolidation in the telecoms sector, and that Vodacom
is well positioned to realise potential associated
opportunities.
South Africa
In South Africa, the year was characterised by volatility in
the political, regulatory and economic environment. In
February 2018, a new administration under the incoming
President Cyril Ramaphosa was appointed. We are
committed to engaging actively with this new
administration, and to work with them in identifying
opportunities which harness the full potential of ICT in
achieving national and global developmental objectives.
Accelerating socioeconomic transformation by
broadening access to connectivity lies at the heart of
Vodacom’s Vision 2020 strategy. For this potential to be
realised, however, it is critical that there is a regulatory
and policy framework that is conducive to the long-term
investment in network infrastructure needed to increase
connectivity and bring down prices. Access to spectrum
and providing certainty on licences to operate are
fundamental to any such investment.
In our recent engagements with government, where CEO
Shameel Joosub has played an active role, we have
highlighted our concerns regarding the draft Electronic
Communications Amendment Bill, and we have proposed
a constructive alternative ‘hybrid model’. We believe that
04
Vodacom Group Limited
Integrated report for the year ended 31 March 2018