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Vodacom Group, South Africa’s leading mobile operator, reported today that its revenue for the six months ended September 30, rose by 4.1 per cent to 40.15 billion rand ($2.8 billion) from 38.56 billion rand ($2.7 billion) posted in a similar period of last year.

The Johannesburg-based company said the uptick in revenue was mainly due to strong growth in its home market during this first half-year period. The company said service revenue grew by 5.3 per cent, led by a 2.3 million increase in active customers since March 2016, mostly in South Africa.

“In South Africa data remains a key contributor to growth, driven by a high demand for data services,” said Shameel Joosub, Vodacom’s Group CEO. “We are actively driving down the cost of data encouraging more customers to use bundles in order to maximise the value they receive for their money.”

Despite the growth in revenue, Vodacom said headline earnings per share – which excludes certain one-off items – remained unchanged year-on-year at 440 cents due mainly to challenges in the company’s international businesses.

"The overall strong operational performance for the six months was negatively impacted by a one-off adjustment in taxation for Tanzania as well as the impact from weaker local market foreign currency," the company said in a statement.

Unlike in South Africa, Vodacom said active international customers decreased by 11 per cent to 27.9 million. New customer acquisitions were impacted by changes in customer registration processes in several countries.

“As expected, our international operations have been impacted by customer registration requirements,” Joosub said. “Our network advantage has provided us with flexibility when navigating our International operations through these short-term pressures and we remain squarely focused on the long-term potential of our international businesses. Nonetheless, I would note the deterioration in the macroeconomic conditions both in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Mozambique which we are monitoring closely.”

Vodacom said interim dividend remained unchanged at 3.95 rand per share. The company’s stock declined 0.6 per cent to 142.24 rand at 10:25 a.m. in Johannesburg on Monday.

Founded in 1994, Vodacom Group has over 61 million customers in South Africa, Tanzania, DRC, Mozambique, and Lesotho. Through its Vodacom Business Africa, the company offers managed services to enterprises in over 40 countries across Africa, including Nigeria. Vodacom is 65 per cent owned by British mobile giant, Vodafone Group.