South Africa-based Vodacom said Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of Congo both reached “critical mass” in terms of M-Pesa take up in the three months to the end of June 2016.

Traditionally, Tanzania has been viewed as the poster child for Vodacom’s mobile money effort, but this time the company hailed Mozambique and DRC for both reaching 1.4 million M-Pesa users.

Nearly one third of the entire active base in Mozambique now uses M-Pesa.

In Vodacom’s international operations, which also include Lesotho, active users of M-Pesa grew by 35 per cent to 10.6 million in the quarter.

Domestically, mobile money has proved more of a struggle for South Africa-based Vodacom. It announced closure of the service in May because of a lack of take-up among users. Users were no longer able to access M-Pesa in South Africa from 1 July.

Revenue from M-Pesa in Vodacom’s international operations grew by 47.5 per cent to ZAR500 million ($35 million) in the three months.