South Africa-based Vodacom added 1.2 million customers to its M-Pesa mobile money service in its international markets of Tanzania, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique and Lesotho in the six months to end-September.

The number of active customers was 9.2 million at end-September, driven, Vodacom said, by “expansion in the distribution channel and a growing ecosystem”.

Customer numbers for M-Pesa have increased 30 per cent year-on-year.

In Tanzania, Vodacom said it is also gaining traction with M-Pawa, a savings and loan product that complements its basic money transfer offering. There are 1.3 million customers actively using the M-Pawa service.

Active customers are defined as those who have “generated revenue related to M-Pesa in the past 90 days”. Of the 9.2 million customers active over the past 90 days, nearly three quarters, or 6.8 million, have been active in the past 30 days.

Vodacom did not reveal M-Pesa take-up for its home market of South Africa.

The group does not operate m-Pesa in Kenya, where the service has proved a massive success in recent years. The Kenyan service is offered by Safaricom.