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Airtel Africa Plc reports $514m profit after tax in Q3

AIRTEL Africa Plc, in the third quarter, achieved excellent performance across key performance parameters, with Nigeria, the company’s largest market, outperforming the rest of the group.

The company operates in 14 African nations, notably in East Africa, Central Africa, and West Africa.

According to key excerpts from the nine-month results for the period ended in December 31, 2021, Airtel Africa’s net profit after tax increased from $261 million in December 2020 to $514 million in December 2021. 

Revenue also increased by 22.5 percent to $3.49 billion, up from $2.85 billion. 

operating profit climbed by 43.1 percent from $800 million to $1.15 billion, profit before taxes increased by 79.4% from $482 million in December 2020 to $864 million in December 2021. 

According to a top-line analysis, voice revenue increased by 13.6 percent from $1.54 billion to $1.75 billion. While increased data users boosted data profit up 33.9 percent from $842 million in December 2020 to  $1.13 billion in December 2021.. Revenue from mobile money increased by 39.6%, from $291 million to $406 million. Other revenues climbed by 19.9% to $306 million, up from $255 million.

The group’s client base continued to grow across all of its operations, as evidenced by the underlying clientele. From 118.9 million to 125.8 million consumers, while the total customer base increased by 5.8%. Users of data increased by 11.1%, from 40.6 million to 45.1 million, while users of mobile money moved by 19.6%, from 21.5 million to 25.7 million.

Nigeria, Airtel Africa’s largest market, outperformed the rest of the group, with revenue increasing by 21.5 percent from $1.13 billion to $1.37 billion and operating profit climbed by 30.4 percent from $431 million to $562 million while Nigeria’s total client base fell by 4.7 percent, from 44.4 million to 42.4 million. 

Meanwhile, the number of data subscribers in Nigeria climbed by 0.7%, from 18.8 million to 19.0 million as the National Identity Number (NIN)/SIM rules in Nigeria had an impact on the client base.

Segun Ogunsanya, Chief Executive Officer of Airtel Africa Plc, said a robust third quarter contributed to the company’s excellent 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 to meet all its conditions to receive the final operating licenses 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.

“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,” Osunsanya said.

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