Vodacom targets banking and financial services
Vodacom CEO Shameel Joosub says that financial services will play a big role in the group’s strategy moving forward as it looks for new revenue streams.
Speaking at the 2017 MyBroadband Conference on Thursday, Joosub said that through its M-Pesa money transfer service, Vodacom is the biggest ‘bank’ in Africa, facilitating about R1.3 trillion via M-Pesa across the continent. “Mobile money continues to transform the financial sector,” he said.
“Financial services is huge for us…that is going to be a big part of our play going forward,” the chief executive said, noting that the company has facilitated R3 billion in loans so far in 2017.
“Loans is already part of our business,” he said, as the group moves into device financing.
Joosub said that Vodacom is seeing a tightening on the economy, which stifles growth, particularly on the corporate side of the business. On the consumer side, more disposable income is also better for business.
The chief executive said that data prices will continue to drop – with the group planning for price transformation each year. By how much, would depend on the release of spectrum by the government, which he described as a ‘huge issue’.
He said that the company is forced to spend billions on building new sites, when that money can be spent on capacity. In 2017, the group has spent R9 billion. “We spend billions of rands on our networks. Our customers’ loyalty depends on the speed of our networks.”
Fibre, Joosub said, will also become a bigger part of the play going forward – operators will have to invest more into fibre – for homes and business. Content, he said will also become more prevalent in the next few years.
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