By Dipo Olowookere
On Thursday, Airtel Africa Plc released its financial results for the first half of its reporting year ended September 30, 2022, with the top line recording double-digit growth and the bottom line going down.
In the financial statements, the company said its profit after tax was lower by 1.5 per cent to $330 million, attributing this to higher foreign exchange and derivative losses of $160 million. But without the foreign exchange and derivative losses, the post-tax profit grew by 30.4 per cent.
The firm, which operates in the telecommunications industry, disclosed that it posted strong revenue growth in constant currency across all its four reporting segments.
Mobile Services revenue in Nigeria grew by 19.7 per cent, in East Africa by 12.4 per cent, and in Francophone Africa by 12.1 per cent (and across the Group by 15.6 per cent, with voice revenue up by 12.0 per cent and data revenue up by 22.1 per cent).
Furthermore, mobile money revenue grew by 29.5 per cent, driven by the growth of 31.5 per cent in East Africa and 23.6 per cent in Francophone Africa.
Also, mobile money transaction value increased in the period under review by 31.7 per cent to an annualized value of $86.1 billion in Q2’23.
Reported revenue grew by 12.9 per cent to $2.565 million and 12.7 per cent for Q2’23, with the constant currency growth rate accelerating to 18.5 per cent in Q2, supporting half-year growth of 16.9 per cent.
It further said the total customer base increased by 9.7 per cent to 134.7 million, with increased penetration across mobile data (customer base up 10.6 per cent) and mobile money services (customer base up 24.0 per cent).
In the period under consideration, EBITDA increased by 14.3 per cent to $1.255 million in reported currency and by 17.8 per cent in constant currency, with an EBITDA margin of 48.9 per cent, an increase of 60 basis points in reported currency and 38 basis points in constant currency.
“Airtel Africa continued to deliver strong results as its purpose of transforming the lives of people across sub-Saharan Africa through digital and financial inclusion gained further momentum, with growth accelerating in the second quarter,” the group CEO of Airtel Africa, Mr Segun Ogunsanya, said.
“Whilst we are not immune to the current macro-economic challenges and currency devaluation risks, I am pleased to report double-digit reported revenue growth in the period, largely driven by customer growth of 9.7 per cent and ARPU growth of 7.2 per cent, as we increased penetration and usage through our affordable service offerings.
“Our cost efficiency initiatives combined with improving growth trends have also helped offset inflationary pressures on our cost base and expand our EBITDA margin by 38bps in constant currency. We continue to de-risk our balance sheet and have further reduced HoldCo debt with the early repayment of $450m of bond in July,” he added.
“Overall, these results continue to demonstrate the effectiveness of our strategy, sound execution, and the resilience of our business despite the uncertain macro-economic environment. For the remainder of the financial year, we anticipate sustained growth in the business, alongside EBITDA margin resilience,” Mr Ogunsanya stated.
Aduragbemi Omiyale 
Adedapo Adesanya