Airtel Africa reported customer base and profit growth, but continued to grapple with currency devaluation on the continent as revenues and EBITDA declined.
In a statement, the Bharti Airtel-owned unit detailed that its total customer base grew by 6.1% to 156.6 million, with data penetration increasing by 10.4%, bringing the total number of data customers to 66 million. Data usage per customer grew by 30.9% to 6.6GB, and smartphone penetration rose by 5.3% to 42.9% of the customer base.
Mobile money subscribers increased by 13.4% to 41.5 million, which Airtel Africa attributed to continued investment in “distribution to support increased financial inclusion across our markets.” Transaction value increased by 30.1% in constant currency, with an annualised transaction value of US$128 billion.
The data capacity of network sites increased by 20%, with the rollout of 2,800 new sites and 3,500km of fibre.
Examining Airtel Africa’s financial performance, the company reported a revenue decline of 9.7% to US$2.37 billion, attributed to currency devaluation, “particularly in Nigeria.”
EBITDA margins fell to 45.8% from 49.6% in H1 due to a “substantial” rise in fuel prices across its markets and lower contributions from Nigeria.
Profit after tax recovered to US$79 million, up from a loss of US$13 million the previous year. This year’s profit was impacted by US$151 million due to foreign exchange losses and lower EBITDA arising from significant currency devaluation across key markets.
Airtel Africa CEO Sunil Taldar said: “The scale of the opportunity across our markets remains substantial. A young and fast-growing population, combined with low levels of SIM and banking penetration on one hand, and increasing smartphone and digital payment adoption across our existing base on the other, provides a unique opportunity to leverage our extensive infrastructure for sustained growth in Sub-Saharan Africa.
“We have already seen strong progress, with an acceleration in constant currency revenue growth over the last quarter as demand for our services remains strong, reflected in the 48% growth in data volumes over the first half of the year, despite the challenging backdrop in some of our markets.”
