Airtel Africa posts $2.2bn revenue, $335m profit half-year

Telecommunications group, Airtel Africa, has posted $2.272 billion revenue for the half-year ended September 30, 2021.

This represents 25.2 per cent growth compared with $1.8 billion recorded in the same period last year, according to the financial results released on Thursday.

The operating profit increased by 55.1% to $732 million while profit after tax was $335 million, an increase of 131.6% on the prior period.

The Nigeria’s arm, Airtel Nigeria, accounted for 41 per cent of the group’s earnings. Nigeria’s revenue for the half-year jumped to $896 million from $718 million recorded in the same period last year.

This represents a 24.7 per cent growth in the company’s revenue.

The telco’s operations are in 14 countries.

Aside from the Nigerian operations, Airtel said it recorded strong revenue growth across all regions including 24.7 per cent growth from East Africa; and 25.7 per cent growth from Francophone Africa.

Growth was also recorded across services as the group’s voice revenue went up by 17.3 per cent, data up by 33.7 per cent, while mobile money revenue grew by 42.7 per cent.

Commenting on the results, the Chief Executive Officer of Airtel Africa, Segun Ogunsanya, said: “Our first half financial performance has been strong. The first half of last year, and especially Q1, was impacted by the start of COVID, but even after adjusting for these effects, our revenue growth rates for the half year for the Group and all our service segments are ahead of our FY’21 revenue growth trends, and in reported terms these are all in strong double digits.”

Ogunsanya added that while risks from COVID-19 still remain, with sub-Saharan Africa continuing to experience a third wave of the pandemic, governments been implementing balanced measures of lockdowns and restrictions accordingly.

“But vaccination levels remain low, and we continue to monitor the situation for potential impacts on economies and consumers,” he said.

“Operationally, we have continued our network modernisation and expansion, aligned with an extension of our distribution capabilities, which have together contributed towards continued strong growth in ARPUs across voice, data and mobile money.

“We have seen an improvement in our customer growth trends for the Group as we approach stability of net monthly movements in Nigeria,” he said.