African operator Vodacom reports that M-Pesa revenue from its Tanzanian operations shot up by 125 per cent during its financial year ended 31 March 2013.

The mobile money service now accounts for 14.1 per cent of sales in Tanzania, or TZS105 billion ($65 million). That’s well up from the 8.4 per cent share that M-Pesa accounted for the previous year.

Vodacom now has 4.9 million active M-Pesa customers in Tanzania, more than half of its subscriber base. The service generates a monthly ARPU of $1.50.

Hoping to build on M-Pesa success in Tanzania, Vodacom recently launched the mobile money service in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

In the other two markets where Vodacom operates outside South Africa – Mozambique and Lesotho – plans are in place to introduce the mobile-banking platform this year.

Although M-Pesa has been slow to take traction in South Africa, Shameel Joosub (pictured), Vodacom’s chief executive, according to a Bloomberg report, says M-Pesa will shortly be re-introduced into the firm’s domestic market “under a new model”.

Joosub told Bloomberg that M-Pesa, one day, would contribute 15 per cent of group revenue.

It’s an ambitious target. Group revenue for the 12 months ended 31 March 2013 was RAN69.9 billion ($7.4 billion), implying future M-Pesa revenue in excess of $1 billion.