By Aduragbemi Omiyale
Shareholders of Airtel Africa Plc will get a final dividend of 3.27 cents per share for the 2023 fiscal year, which ended on March 31, 2023, the board has said.
This is as the company showed that it was capable of making investors smile and giving them value for their money despite the tough operating environment across its markets on the continent.
Nigeria, which is its biggest market, has been quite challenging for businesses across different sectors due to high inflation, high cost of operations, currency devaluation, and others.
Despite these headwinds, Airtel Africa increased its total customer base by 9.0 per cent to 140.0 million, as the penetration of mobile data and mobile money services continued to rise, driving a 16.9 per cent increase in data customers to 54.6 million and a 20.4 per cent increase in mobile money customers to 31.5 million.
The telco disclosed in its financial statements filed to the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited that in the period under review, mobile money transaction value increased by 41.3 per cent, with Q4’23 annualised transaction value exceeding $102 billion in constant currency.
Airtel Africa said revenue in constant currency grew by 17.6 per cent in the year, with revenues growing by 11.5 per cent to $5.3 billion in reported currency from $4.7 billion in the 2022 financial year.
It said while each segment’s reported currency revenue growth was impacted by currency devaluation, they all delivered double-digit constant currency revenue growth.
The results showed that mobile service revenue grew by 16.2 per cent in constant currency, driven by voice revenue growth of 11.8 per cent to $2.5 billion from $2.4 billion and data revenue growth of 23.8 per cent to $1.8 billion from $1.5 billion, as mobile money revenue grew by 29.6 per cent in constant currency from $692 million from $553 million.
Also, its underlying EBITDA appreciated by 17.3 per cent in constant currency and 11.4 per cent in reported currency to $2.6 billion, with an underlying EBITDA margin of 49.0 per cent, reflecting the resilience of its operating model despite inflationary cost pressures, though its net profit went down to $750 million.
“Currencies across our footprint have been under pressure, and the impact from the revaluation of our foreign currency-denominated liabilities provided some headwinds in the last financial year.
“While currency devaluation is not in our control, we have plans to continue to mitigate its impact by growing our revenues at a faster pace than devaluation, with double-digit revenue growth in reported currency delivered this year and as we continue to reduce our foreign currency exposure across our balance sheet,” the chief executive of Airtel Africa, Mr Segun Ogunsanya said.
