Airtel Africa Records $3,492m Revenue Growth, 125.8m Customer Base in Nine Months As Nigeria leads in revenue generation

 Emma Okonji

Airtel Africa, which offers telecoms services in 14 African countries, Nigeria inclusive, yesterday, released its nine months financial statement for the year ended December 31, 2021, where it recorded $3,492 million revenue growth and an expanded customer base growth of 125.8 million within the same period.

According to the financial statement, Airtel Africa recorded constant currency underlying revenue growth across all regions, with Nigeria topping the regions in revenue generation.

In Nigeria, the telecoms company recorded up 29.0 per cent; East Africa up 24.4 per cent and Francophone Africa up 19.0 per cent. Its revenue across all key services in voice is up 16.1 per cent, and in data and mobile money both up 37.2 per cent.

The statement said it recorded strong growth across all key metrics, and would unlock further mobile money opportunity, given the Payment Service Bank (PSB) approval in principle that it got from Nigeria.

According to the statement, underlying EBITDA was $1,703m, growing by 31.3 per cent in reported currency with an EBITDA margin of 48.8 per cent, an increase of 326 basis points led by both revenue growth and improved operational efficiencies.

Operating profit grew by 43.1 per cent to $1,146 million in reported currency.

Profit after tax almost doubled to $514 million as higher profit before tax more than offset associated tax charges.

Basic EPS was 11.7 cents, an increase of 113.8 per cent, largely as a result of higher profit. EPS before exceptional items increased to 11.5 cents, up from 5.0 cents in the previous period.

Operating free cash flow grew by 42.2 per cent to $1,271 million and net cash generated from operating activities was up 23.1per cent to $1,499 million.

The customer base expanded to 125.8 million, growing by 5.8 per cent, with increased penetration across mobile data and mobile money services.

The statement however said that customer base growth was affected by the NIN/SIM regulations in Nigeria but returned to growth in the region in the third quarter, excluding Nigeria where the customer base grew by 12.0 per cent.

Giving details of the trade update within the period, the Chief Executive Officer of Airtel Africa, Segun Ogunsanya, said: “A strong third quarter has contributed to a pleasing nine-month financial performance across all key metrics.

Operationally we have continued to execute on our network and distribution expansion plans, driving continued strong growth in ARPUs across voice, data and mobile money. We have also seen further improvement in our customer growth trends for the Group with Nigeria returning to strong customer growth after a period affected by the implementation of new ‘know your customer’ requirements, posting 1.9 million net additions in the third quarter, taking total Group customer additions to 3.1 million.

“I am particularly pleased with developments in Nigeria, where in November we received approval in principle for both a payment service bank (mobile money) licence and a super-agent licence. We are now working closely with the Central Bank of Nigeria to meet all its conditions to receive the final operating licences and commence operations. This will enable us to expand our digital financial products and reach the millions of Nigerians that do not have access to traditional financial services.

We continued to strengthen our balance sheet, with our leverage ratio now 1.4 times underlying EBITDA, thanks both to continued increases in operating cash flow delivery and to over $550m of cash that has now been received from minority investments into our mobile money business.”

Ogunsanya added: “We will continue to invest in expanding and evolving our platform to further deepen both financial and digital inclusion across Africa. I continue to see huge growth potential across voice, data and mobile money and our strategy is delivering against this opportunity. Our sustained investments in both network and distribution expansion will help to ensure that both the communities and economies across our footprint will continue to benefit from increased and affordable connectivity and financial inclusion. We are committed to continue to improve the delivery of our services to our customers, with sustainability at the heart of our continued purpose to transform lives across Africa.”

The telecoms company said the financial report had been prepared based on International Accounting Standard 34 (IAS 34) issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) approved for use in the UK by the UK Accounting Standards Endorsement Board (UKEB).

Airtel Africa is a leading provider of telecommunications and mobile money services, with a presence in 14 countries in Africa, primarily in East Africa and Central and West Africa.

Airtel Africa offers an integrated suite of telecoms solutions to its subscribers, including mobile voice and data services as well as mobile money services, both nationally and internationally. We aim to continue providing a simple and intuitive customer experience through streamlined customer journeys.