By Dipo Olowookere
More people are beginning to embrace the services of Airtel Africa Plc because of the company’s sustained network investment across the 14 countries it operates.
The 2025 half-year results of Airtel Africa Plc ended September 30, 2024, released on Friday, October 25, 2024, showed that its customer base went up during the period by 6.1 per cent to 156.6 million, helping the telco to increase its revenue in constant currency by 19.9 per cent, though the reported currency retreated by 9.7 per cent to $2.4 billion from $2.6 billion in the same period of last year as a result of Naira devaluation in Nigeria, which grew its earnings by 38.2 per cent in the second quarter of the financial year.
Airtel Africa said data customer penetration continues to rise, driving a 10.4 per cent increase in data customers to 66.0 million, with data usage per customer rising by 30.9 per cent to 6.6 GBs and smartphone penetration growing by 5.3 per cent to 42.9 per cent.
It stated further that mobile money subscribers went up by 13.4 per cent to 41.5 million, reflecting its continued investment into distribution to support increased financial inclusion across its markets.
In the period under review, transaction value expanded by 30.1 per cent in constant currency with an annualised transaction value of $128 billion.
The company emphasised that customer experience remains core to its strategy with sustained network investment during the period, helping data capacity across the network to move up by 20 per cent with the rollout of over 2,800 sites and around 3,500 km of fibre.
Airtel Africa said to secure beneficial contract structures and further enhance its partnership with ATC, it has extended its tower lease agreements for approximately 7,100 sites in four markets for a further 12-year period.
“The new agreements have a focus on renewable energy investment which will drive operating cost efficiencies over the medium-term and will have a neutral to positive impact on near-term free cash flow.
“The renewals have resulted in a $1.2 billion increase in lease liabilities, which has been the primary driver of the increase in leverage to 2.3x from 1.6x in the previous quarter,” it stated.
Airtel Africa said in the period under review, a substantial increase in fuel prices across its markets and the lower contribution of Nigeria to the Group after the naira devaluation contributed to a decline in EBITDA margins to 45.8 per cent from 49.6 per cent in H1’24.
It said profit after tax of $79 million was impacted by $151 million of exceptional derivative and foreign exchange losses (net of tax), arising from the further depreciation in the Nigerian naira during the period.
However, the board increased the interim dividend payout by 9 per cent to 2.6 cents per share in line with its progressive dividend policy.