Vodacom’s operation in Tanzania saw an increased top-line contribution from M-Pesa in H1 2014, another indication of how even mature mobile money services can offer rapid growth to their parents.

A total of 5.46 million customers, which is more than half of the operator’s user base in Tanzania, are now also subscribers to M-Pesa.

The 54.5 per cent penetration in the country for the mobile money service is up from 47 per cent penetration in the same period in 2012.

M-Pesa contributed 18.7 per cent of the Tanzania operator’s revenues compared to 12.6 per cent a year ago.

Last week Kenya’s Safaricom similarly reported a growing contribution from M-Pesa, the most well-established mobile money service in the world.

Vodacom also reported that the mobile money service is now available in all its other markets of DRC, Mozambique and Lesotho outside of South Africa.

However, the operator has struggled to make an impact with M-Pesa in its largest market in South Africa.

In contrast, Tanzania has been a flagship success. For instance, nearly 20 per cent of airtime in Tanzania is now purchased via M-Pesa, a leap from eight per cent a year earlier.

Vodacom has a total of 5.6 million active M-Pesa users, with the vast majority obviously in Tanzania.

Overall, the group reported a 6.6 per cent rise in revenue to ZAR36.69 billion ($3.54 billion) on net profit that rose 8.4 per cent to ZAR6.63 billion.