NAIROBI, Kenya- Airtel Africa has reported a remarkable comeback, posting a Sh10.2 billion ($79 million) profit for the fiscal year ending September—a staggering 726.3 pc jump from its Sh1.7 billion loss during the same period in 2023.
This turnaround is attributed to impressive growth in key markets, especially Nigeria, where revenue surged by 38.2 pc, and in Francophone Africa, which saw a 9 pc increase.
Driving Airtel Africa’s success is robust growth across its mobile and mobile money segments. Mobile services revenue shot up by 18.4 pc, while mobile money revenue climbed a noteworthy 28.8 pc.
Mobile money subscribers grew by 13.4 pc, now totaling 41.5 million users.
The service has become increasingly popular across Airtel’s 14 African markets, which include Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda, and Malawi, helping to push the transaction value up by 30.1 pc, reaching an impressive annualized transaction volume of $128 billion.
Airtel’s customer base also expanded by 6.1 pc to 156.6 million, with data usage per customer rising 30.9 pc to 6.6 GB.
Meanwhile, smartphone penetration in Airtel markets reached 42.9 pc, an encouraging sign of mobile adoption.
While Airtel Africa’s profit is up, the company continues to feel the sting of currency fluctuations, especially from the depreciation of Nigeria’s naira. According to Airtel, the profit was impacted by exceptional derivative and foreign exchange losses totaling $151 million.
Despite this, Airtel’s East African operations, including Kenya, Malawi, and Uganda, contributed Sh285.2 billion to the company’s Sh667 billion in revenue for the fiscal year ending March 2024, marking the region as a solid revenue driver.
Looking ahead, Airtel Africa’s CEO Sunil Taldar outlined a vision to meet customers’ needs through enhanced distribution, streamlined customer interactions, and improved network quality.
The focus on expanding in business-to-business (B2B) and home broadband markets aims to unlock even greater growth potential across the continent.
“To meet our customers’ expectations, we will enhance distribution, simplify customer journeys, and improve network experience,” Taldar noted, underscoring the significant opportunities for growth.
