Airtel Africa posts double-digit growth in quarterly profit
Airtel Africa Plc has said its profit after tax for the quarter ended June 30, 2022 grew by 25.3 percent to $178 million.
The telecommunications company said in a statement on Thursday that its operating profit rose by 20.6 percent to $425m in reported currency, while its revenue grew by 13.0 percent to $1.257 billion.
Total revenues, for mobile services and mobile money services combined, grew in Nigeria by 18.3 percent, in East Africa by 14.1 percent and in Francophone Africa by 11.7 percent, it said.
Airtel said its total customer base increased to 131.6 million, up 8.9 percent, with increased penetration across mobile data (customer base up 9.7 percent) and mobile money services (customer base up 19.7 percent).
“I am pleased to report that the Group has continued to post double-digit revenue growth, margin improvement and strong earnings growth. I am also particularly pleased with our ongoing strengthening of the balance sheet which continued after the period ended, with early repayment of $450m of debt at group level,” Segun Ogunsanya, chief executive officer, said.
He said the telco faced headwinds from outbound voice call barring for customers who had not yet registered their National Identification Numbers in Nigeria and the loss of site sharing revenue in those operating companies the company recently sold towers.
He said: “Inflation is also having an impact on our cost base, particularly on energy costs, but our continued efficiency drives have ensured that we have still been able to increase our margins, albeit at a slightly slower rate.
“After receiving the Payment Service Bank licence in Nigeria just a few months ago, it is a testament to our prior preparation that we have already managed to launch our mobile money operations in a few select locations without any operational issues.
“We are excited by the commercial developments and opportunities here. We also continued to invest for growth and have made a couple of major additional spectrum acquisitions recently in the DRC and Kenya in anticipation of continued strong data demand growth in these markets.”
