Vodafone Africa Revenue Grows 14.8% in Q1 FY27

In Short

Vodafone’s Africa business grew strongly in the quarter ended June 30, 2026. Total revenue rose 14.8% year on year to €2.2 billion. Service revenue, the money earned from ongoing customer services like voice, data, and mobile money, increased 15.1% to €1.79 billion.

What Happened

Vodafone reported double-digit growth from its African operations in Q1 FY27. Vodafone said organic service revenue growth, which strips out currency swings and one-off changes, was 12.6%. That was up from 10.9% in the previous quarter.

In South Africa, the company said growth came from higher mobile revenue and more prepaid data traffic, which is the amount of internet used by pay-as-you-go customers. It also pointed to expanding business digital services and rising fixed service revenue as it increased its fibre footprint.

Financial services revenue in South Africa reached €50 million, up 6.6% organically. Vodafone said this was supported by insurance products, merchant services, and lending marketplace offers.

Egypt also posted strong results. Vodafone said service revenue grew well above inflation, helped by higher data traffic, financial services performance, and industry-wide price increases introduced in May 2026. Vodafone Cash delivered organic revenue growth of 72.9% to €50 million.

Across Vodacom’s international markets, including Tanzania, DR Congo, Lesotho, and Mozambique, service revenue growth was driven by data consumption and expansion of M-Pesa. M-PESA revenue grew 23.6% organically to €137 million and now makes up 31.2% of service revenue in those markets.

Vodafone also reported customer growth. South Africa added 37,000 mobile contract customers, taking its contract base above 7 million, while prepaid subscribers reached 41.7 million. VodaPay grew to 3 million active users.

Separately, Vodafone Mozambique has secured a 5G license and bought 210 MHz of spectrum for $56 million. Spectrum is the radio “real estate” mobile networks use to carry signals, and the final payment and license terms are still being agreed with the regulator.

Why It Matters

For founders and operators, Vodafone’s results show that data demand and mobile money are still the clearest growth drivers for telecom groups across Africa. The Mozambique 5G spectrum deal also signals more network upgrades, which can improve connectivity for startups building products that depend on fast and reliable mobile internet.