Airtel Africa makes 82% profit rise on $4.71b revenue
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Airtel Africa – the parent company of Airtel Nigeria – made a net profit of $451 million in full year ended March 2022 (FY March 2022), up 82 per cent year-on-year from $451 million in FY March 2021.
Revenue grew 21.3 per cent from $3.89 billion to $4.71 billion in FY March 2022, according to its Full Year Audited Financial Statement.
Net profit rose on higher operating profit, which grew 37 per cent from $1.12 billion to $1.54 billion.
Airtel Africa had a 19 per cent growth to $1.22 billion in the fourth quarter ended December 2021 (Q4 2021) versus $1.04 billion in Q4 2020. Profit after tax appreciated 56 per cent to $240 million.
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Other highlights
Airtel Africa posted double-digit growth across all key services – Voice revenue (13.2 per cent), data (31.8 per cent), mobile (37.9 per cent).
Revenue from Nigeria made up about 40 of total revenue, the largest input compared with East Africa and Francophone Africa, according to reporting by Nairametrics.
- Airtel Nigeria revenue – $1.88 billion (up 21 per cent on $1.55 billion in 2021)
- Data revenue continued to be a key driver, as it shot up 33.7 per cent
- Customer net growth – 2.4 million. It was affected by NIN-SIM linkage regulation in half year 2021 (H1 2021) but recovered in H2 2021 with four million new subscribers
- Airtel Africa taxation – $469 million (up 66 per cent)
- Group customer base – 128.4 million (up 8.7 per cent with increased penetration across mobile data and mobile money services)
Cost control, cash generation
“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,” said Segun Ogunsanya, Airtel Nigeria Chief Executive Officer.
“We have successfully executed on a number of strategic initiatives in the year, with tower sales completed in four countries, $550m 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. We are working to improve our performance by focusing more on digitisation.”