South African operator Vodacom has registered an H1 drop in both operating profit and net profit which it has attributed to losses from its start-up business in Ethiopia and higher finance costs. For the six months ending 30th September 2022, operating profit dropped 5.6% from ZAR14.058 billion (US$813.35 million) to ZAR13.268 billion, while net profit fell 9.0% to ZAR8.072 billion. Additionally, CAPEX was up 9.8% from ZAR6.920 billion to ZAR7.599 billion. We have already launched our network in 16 cities in Ethiopia with plans to expand services to 25 cities by April 2023, to reach our first milestone of 25% population coverage.”Supporting Joosub’s optimism, Vodacom did indeed see revenue increases across H1, with group revenue up 7.7% year-on-year to ZAR53.713 billion and service revenue increasing 7.2% to ZAR41.729 billion. The group also gained an additional 3 million subscribers across the period, bringing it to a total of 132.6 million customers across its operations.

Source: Ethiopian News November 14, 2022 14:00 UTC