East Africa bloc pushes up Airtel Africa revenue

AIRTEL Africa has said mobile money revenue in constant currency pushed by East Africa strong performance tops its revenue for the year ending March.

The group mobile money revenue grew by 32.8 per cent in constant currency compared to mobile services grew by 19.4 per cent driven by voice revenue growth of 11.9 per cent and data revenue growth of 29.2 per cent.

Airtel Africa Chief Executive Officer Olusegun Ogunsanya said in a statement over the weekend that the strong revenue performance was a reflection not only of the opportunity but also the resilience of affordable offerings despite the inflationary pressure across the continent.

“The consistent deployment of our ‘win with’ strategy supported the acceleration in constant currency revenue growth over the recent quarters which has reduced the impact of currency headwinds faced across most of our markets,” Mr Ogunsanya said.

Loss after tax was 89 million US dollars, primarily impacted by significant foreign exchange headwinds, resulting in a 549 million US dollars exceptional loss net of tax following the Nigerian naira devaluation last June 2023 and the Malawian kwacha devaluation last November.

“The growth opportunity that exists across our markets remains compelling, and we are well positioned to deliver against this opportunity.

“We will continue to focus on margin improvement from the recent level as we progress through the year,” the CEO said.
The group total customer base grew by 9.0 per cent to 152.7 million and also, they continue to bridge the digital divide with a 17.8 per cent increase in data customers to 64.4 million and a 20.8 per cent increase in data usage per customer.

Mobile money subscriber growth of 20.7 per cent reflects their continued investment into distribution to drive increased financial inclusion across our markets.

Transaction value increase of 38.2 per cent in constant currency with annual transaction value of over 112billion US dollars in reported currency.

Increased transactions across the ecosystem reflects the enhanced range of offerings and increased customer adoption, supporting constant currency ARPU growth of 8.6 per cent.

The group said will continue network investment to support an enhanced customer experience and drive
increased 4G coverage.

Airtel Africa said 95 per cent of sites now 4G operational, facilitating a 42.3 per cent increase in 4G customers over the year.