By Grace Kehinde
Airtel Africa Plc on Wednesday reported 20.6 per cent increase in revenue to $4.7billion in its financial year results for period ended March 31, 2022 from N3.89billion reported in prior full year results.
The telecommunication company reported revenue constant currency underlying revenue grew 23.3per cent for the year and 19.1per cent in Q4.
Airtel Africa in a statement said the constant currency underlying revenue growth was strong in all regions: Nigeria up 27.7 per cent, East Africa up 22.7per cent and Francophone Africa up 17.2 per cent; and across all key services, with revenue in Voice up 15.4 per cent, Data up 34.6 per cent and Mobile Money up 34.9 per cent.
In the period under review, Airtel Africa reported 82 per cent increase in profit to $755million as the board recommended a final dividend of 3 cents per share, making total FY’22 dividends 5 cents per share (FY’21: 4 cents).
Airtel Africa’s Customer base of 128.4 million, up 8.7 per cent, with increased penetration across mobile data (customer base up 15.2 per cent) and mobile money services (customer base up 20.7 per cent). NIN/SIM regulations in Nigeria impacted customer growth in H1, but then returned to strong growth, adding 4 million customers in Nigeria during H2’22.
The chief executive officer, Airtel Africa, Segun Ogunsanya in a statement said, ““This is another strong set of results for Airtel Africa, demonstrating our solid execution as we continue to enrich the lives of a growing number of people through leveraging the sizeable opportunity to promote digital and financial inclusion across our markets.
“We have delivered strong double-digit growth in revenues across all our regions and all our key services, with improving margins driven by strong cost control, and expanding cash generation which is enabling us to continue to invest in our network and services and expand our distribution, as well as strengthening our balance sheet and increasing our returns to shareholders. We are connecting more customers in new and existing coverage areas and driving usage levels and ARPUs to new highs.
“We have successfully executed on a number of strategic initiatives in the year, with tower sales completed in four countries, $550million of minority investments secured for our mobile money business and a successful buyout of minorities in our Nigerian operation. Our receipt last month of a full PSB licence in Nigeria will help us to accelerate financial inclusion in the territory and drive our mobile money business even faster.
“While the fundamentals of our six-pillar growth strategy remain unchanged, we are looking to accelerate our performance through a greater focus on digitalisation and we have underpinned our strategic pillars with our sustainability ambition.
“I am particularly proud of the progress we have made in articulating our sustainability strategy this year as well as the partnership we announced with UNICEF to help drive and support educational programmes in our territories. I very much look forward to us publishing both our pathway to net zero and our first full sustainability report later in the year.
“Turning to the outlook, long-term opportunities for us remain attractive. While mindful of currency devaluation and repatriation risks, we continue to work actively to mitigate all our material risks and to deliver value for all our stakeholders. There are increasing challenges from global inflationary pressures, but we continue to target revenue growth ahead of the market and moderate margin expansion.”
