Browsing: Vodacom

Hilda Bujiku speaks during the launch of Vodacom 5G technology

Vodacom Tanzania fell Sh103.8 billion short of its second quarter target and the company blames it on what it says is ‘the impact of mobile money transaction levies.’

In its latest annual report, Tanzania’s largest telecom, subscription wise, said compared to the same period last year, its second quarter earnings this year, that Sh956.515 are over one percent lower.

Not only was the income low, but the company had projected much higher earnings this year in excess of Sh1.06 trillion. However, much to the dismay of its investors and stakeholders, the company was almost 10 percent off target in this year’s second quarter earnings.

So what happened, how did the largest telecom company fall so far off its projections? And no in just one area, the company’s annual report concedes that Vodacom suffered drop of revenue in at least four of its top six revenue channels.

Vodacom, the only publicly …

Vodacom launches VodaLend Cash Advance for underbanked customers www.theexchange.africa

The service is now available to many people, including first-time borrowers, who can reap the benefits of a safe and regulated lending solution.

When the transaction is complete, the funds are transferred immediately into the user’s VodaPay Wallet. It can be used directly for in-app purchases, such as buying pre-paid electricity and water, paying bills, using scan-to-pay technology in stores, and sending money to friends and family members.

Because its fees are lower than those charged by traditional providers of short-term cash advances, this cutting-edge product has the potential to revolutionise the industry.…

Financial digital transformation is key to Africa's financial inclusion. www.theexchange.africa

Generally speaking, the proliferation of mobile phone technology has increased access to mobile money services (MMS) and is the backbone of mobile money deployment in both rural and urban areas of Africa.

“Despite its enormous benefits, embracing the usage and acceptance of mobile money has mostly been low due to security issues and challenges associated with the system,” warns professor Guma Ali from the Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology.

In a paper titled ‘Evaluation of Key Security Issues Associated with Mobile Money Systems in Uganda,’ the pundit suggests the need to carry out a survey to evaluate the key security issues associated with mobile money systems in Uganda (and Africa).

In the study that followed, which employed a descriptive research design, and stratified random sampling technique to group the population, some 741 registered mobile money (MM) users and 447 registered MM agents along with 52 mobile network …

mobile money in Tanzania

The government amended the Electronic and Postal Communication Act (CAP) last month by imposing a levy of between US$0.0043 (10Tsh) and US$4 on mobile money transactions, depending on the amount sent and withdrawn.

One of the key factors that led to the expansion of mobile money in Africa and Tanzania, in this case, was the increased interoperability, product expansion—which brought financial inclusion to enable nearly everyone with decent income-earning schedules to own a mobile wallet account.…

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South African regulators have put on notice Communications companies in country who are charging unbearable prices for mobile data, this is after South Africa was ranked 136th worldwide for its mobile data pricing this year in a study that was conducted based on the cost of 1 gigabyte (1GB) of mobile data.

The research was conducted by Cable.co.uk between the month of December 8, 2020 and February 25, 2021, with 6 148 mobile data plans in 230 countries gathered and analyzed.

South Africa’s data costs an average of $2.67 (R38.93) for 1GB of data from a sample of 60 plans measured on February, 25. The study found the cheapest data cost $0.12, while the most expensive was $34.95.

Data prices are keenly looked at by South African consumers after the Competition Commission found South Africa’s major mobile providers, Vodacom, Telkom, MTN, and Cell C, were charging too much for mobile …

VODA

The Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) has won a USD 1.3 million (3bn/-) case against Vodacom Tanzania dating back almost two decades ago. Tanzania’s Court of Appeal delivered a ruling last week in which it rejected Vodacom’s appeal of TRA’s tax audit dating back to a three year period between 2001-2004.

Local media reported at the start of the week that, “…TRA, the respondent, conducted tax audit in respect of the appellant’s business affairs for the period covering the year 2001 to 2004.”

The findings of this audit were that Vodacom Tanzania was withholding tax and penalties related to services and royalty for use of software acquired from Siemens Telecommunications (PTY) Ltd.

“On November 10, 2006 the respondent served the appellant with preliminary audit findings…” in turn, on April 24, 2007, Vodacom Tanzania issued its own revised audit findings which TRA did not accept as correct.

The following year, on August …

Cabling Africa: 180Tbps sub-sea cable for future internet connectivity in Africa announced

A new mega cable capable of carrying extensive data across Africa has been announced. China Mobile International, Facebook, MTN GlobalConnect, Orange, stc, Telecom Egypt, Vodacom, Vodafone and WIOCC have announced that they will partner to build 2Africa.

This is expected to be the most comprehensive subsea cable to serve the African continent and Middle East region. The parties have appointed Alcatel Submarine Networks (“ASN”) to build the cable in a fully funded project which will greatly enhance connectivity across Africa and the Middle East.

At 37,000km long, 2Africa will be one of the world’s largest subsea cable projects and will interconnect Europe (eastward via Egypt), the Middle East (via Saudi Arabia), and 21 landings in 16 countries in Africa. The system is expected to go live in 2023/4, delivering more than the total combined capacity of all subsea cables serving Africa today, with a design capacity of up to 180Tbps …

Vodacom Business Africa sells operations in four African countries

Pan African private equity company Convergence Partners has announced that it has acquired all the operations of telecommunication giant Vodacom Business Africa through its digital service provider platform, inq. Holdings Limited (formerly Synergy Communications) based in Mauritius.

Vodacom Business Africa is an enterprise-focused ICT subsidiary of the Vodacom Group. With over US$300mn of capital under management, Convergence Partners brings its skills, experience and capital to develop new investment opportunities as well as actively adding value to investments across the lifecycle of ICT assets.

The 100% acquisition of Vodacom Business Africa’s operations will be effected in Nigeria, Zambia and Cote d’Ivoire with a further planned acquisition in Cameroon pending regulatory approvals.

This transaction grows inq.’s regional footprint as a leading enterprise solutions provider to 13 cities in 7 countries across Africa including its existing operations in Botswana, Malawi and Mozambique.

Under the inq. banner the company will embark on the next …

Tanzania, one of East Africa’s largest economy is executing a phase-based sim cards shutdown across the country, following the set deadline of biometric sim card registration.

The procedure comes at hard times when, only 28.4 million sim cards have been registered by January 19, while Tanzanian Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) statistics show 48.8 million active sim cards are active in Tanzania.

In a nation with more than 55 million people, mobile services have become the most pervasive communications platform in Tanzania; by 2007, over 5 million people, representing a 10th of the population, subscribed to a mobile service. Hence—the 2019 GSM report on Digital Transformation in Tanzania, showed that today, the number of unique mobile subscribers has grown five-fold to 25.2 million.

This means that Tanzania’s current sim card lock could lose a significant portion of the tax and cripple money transfer income to mobile money agents and services …

Tigo, Tanzania has unveiled a new package, allowing its customers to call across networks at the same tariff.

The package dubbed “Ujanja Ni” is expected to increase its customer base by stiffening competition witin the telecommunication sector in the country.

According to a statement from Tigo, the package offers absolute freedom to call any network at the same tariff, and customers purchase the voice, and data packages at affordable and competitive prices.

Tanzania Communications Regulations Authority (TCRA) September 2019 quarterly statistics, put Tigo Tanzania with 26.1 per cent of the subscription market share, at the height of voice consumption along-side other telco giants Vodacom and Airtel Tanzania.

The launching of the service adds up on the Tanzanian government’s efforts in ensuring that making calls across all networks in Tanzania is affordable and gives customers the assurance to enjoy a better internet experience on the biggest 4G+ network in the country.…