Airtel Nigeria posts $28m profit rise in nine months
Airtel Africa Plc has reported an increase of 6.9 percent in its operating profit in Nigeria for the nine-month period ended December 31, 2020.
The company, in its results obtained from the Nigerian Stock Exchange, said its operating profit grew to $431m in the period from $403m a year ago.
It said revenue in reported currency grew by 13.5 percent and 21.6 percent in constant currency as a result of Nigerian naira devaluation by 7.9 percent (year-on-year).
The telecommunications company said its voice revenue continued to grow by double digit to $657m in the nine-month period, up by 14.2 percent in constant currency.
It said data revenue growth of 35.2 percent in constant currency was driven by 23.6 percent growth in data customers and the 12.2 percent growth in data average revenue per user.
“Our nine-month performance reflects both the resilience of our business model through the Covid-19 pandemic and, for the last six months, a continued improvement in our execution and performance as lockdown restrictions have eased across our countries of operation,” the Chief Executive Officer, Airtel Africa, Raghunath Mandava, said.
He said the company continued to deliver strong customer growth in the third quarter despite the introduction mid-December of additional customer registration requirements in Nigeria.
He said, “This has meant a temporary halt to the ability of all operators in the country to onboard new customers. But we are working closely with the government to ensure that all our subscribers provide their valid National Identification Numbers and update their SIM registration records, such that disruption is minimised.
“Our performance improvement is evident across the business. Regionally, I am pleased to see that the continued strong revenue growth in Nigeria and East Africa, growing 21.6 percent and 23.4 percent in constant currency, is increasingly being matched by improvements across Francophone Africa, posting 8.0 percent growth for the period and 15.0 percent in Q3.”
