Airtel Africa Records Double Digit Revenue Growth, Rakes in $750m Profit

Emma Okonji

Airtel Africa, which operates in 14 African countries, including Nigeria, yesterday, released its financial results for the year ended March 31, 2023, where it recorded double digit revenue to the value of $750 million profit after tax. 

According to the financial results, the customer base grew by 9.0 per cent to 140.0 million, as the penetration of mobile data and mobile money services continued to rise, driving a 16.9 per cent increase in data customers to 54.6 million and a 20.4 per cent increase in mobile money customers to 31.5 million.

Its mobile money transaction value increased by 41.3 per cent with Q4 2023 annualised transaction value exceeding $102 billion in constant currency.

Its revenue in constant currency grew by17.6 per cent, with revenues growing by 11.5 per cent to $5,255million in reported currency.

While each segment’s reported currency revenue growth was impacted by currency devaluation, they all delivered double-digit constant currency revenue growth. Across the Group’s mobile service, revenue grew by 16.2 per cent in constant currency, driven by voice revenue growth of 11.8 per cent and data revenue growth of 23.8 per cent. Mobile money revenue grew by 29.6 per cent in constant currency.

Underlying Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortisation (EBITDA) increased by 17.3 per cent  in constant currency, and 11.4 per cent in reported currency to $2,575 million, with an underlying EBITDA margin of 49.0 per cent, reflecting the resilience of our operating model despite inflationary cost pressures.

Profit after tax was $750 million, a decrease of only $5 million, after including a higher foreign exchange and derivative losses of $245 million, the report stated.

Analysing the financial report, and giving its trading update, the Chief Executive Officer of Airtel Africa, Olusegun Ogunsanya, said: “Over the last year, the operating environment has been challenging in many ways, yet our strategic focus on providing reliable, affordable and accessible services across our markets has enabled us to sustain our top-line growth momentum. The resilience of our underlying EBITDA margins has shown the effectiveness of our operating model, despite significant inflationary and foreign exchange pressures. Strong customer and ARPU growth over the year demonstrates that demand for our services remains very strong and gives us the confidence to continue investing to support our future growth potential. Over the year, we invested $500m on additional spectrum, including 5G, across many of our OpCos which, combined with our capex, will underpin our growth ambitions.

“I am pleased with this year’s performance and wish to thank all our customers, business partners, governments and regulators for their support and our employees for their consistent contribution to the business’ success.”

Airtel Nigeria CEO, Carl Cruz, said: “The results of the year ended March 2023, place Airtel Africa in an optimistic footing and Nigeria, being one of the most vibrant countries in the Group’s operations, is in a vantage position to capitalise on 5G technology, an energetic subscriber base, and the growing adoption of mobile money services, while we continue to promote the Group’s sustainability commitments.”