Airtel Africa’s profit surges to $178 million in three months

Airtel Africa PLC has released its financial statement for its Q1 period ended June 30, 2022. For the period under review, the telco’s revenue grew by 13.0% to $1.2 billion, compared to $1.1 billion during the same period in 2021.

 The sizable increase in revenue was due to a strong performance in the voice, data and mobile money segments of Airtel’s business operations. Specifically, revenue from the voice segment stood at $610 million, followed by data revenue at $418 million and mobile money revenue at $159 million.

Other revenue generated by the telecom giant for the period stood at $106 million.

The total expenses for the Q1 period was $645 million. These include a total tax charge of $98 million.

Meanwhile, profit after tax for the period under review stood $178 million, marking a 25.3% growth year on year.

While commenting on the financial performance, Airtel Africa’s Chief Executive Officer, Segun Ogunsanya, said: “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

“As we flagged in our full year announcement, this quarter we have 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 OpCos where we recently sold towers. 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.”

He further commented on the Payment Service licence the telecom group received recently in Nigeria, saying that the company was excited about the opportunities this has presented.

He also spoke about some of the investments they company has made recently, including spectrum acquisitions in Kenya and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) all of which tie into its overall growth plan.

Airtel Africa PLC operates in 14 African markets and has a combined user base of about 131.6 million

SOURCE: BUSINES INSIDER AFRICA