Airtel Nigeria Grows Customer Base by 12.5% to 41.8m in 2019

• Airtel Nigeria Grows Customer Base by 12.5% to 41.8m in 2019

Airtel Nigeria, one of Africa’s largest telecommunications companies, grew revenue by 24.1 percent to $1.37 billion in the year ended March 31, 2020.

The telecom giant attributed the impressive growth in revenue to 15.1 percent surged in voice revenue and 68.1 percent increase in data revenue.

In the company’s financial statements released through the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Wednesday, Airtel Nigeria generated $850 million from voice revenue, $435 million from data revenue and $88 million from other revenues during the period under review.

Accordingly, the telecom company grew customer base by 12.5 percent to 41.8 million, largely due to its leadership in 4G network, efficient sales and broad distribution network.

While the company’s other revenue declined by 17.2 percent, Airtel grew revenue by 11.2 percent to $3.42 billion across its African markets.

Also, voice revenue rose by 5.2 percent, data revenue improved by 39 percent and mobile money revenue surged by 37.2 percent across the company’s markets in Africa.

Speaking on the impressive performance, Raghunath Mandava, the Chief Executive Officer, Airtel Africa, said “These are a strong set of results, which delivered against our aspirations set out at the time of the IPO, with performance sequentially improving during the year.

“Revenue increased by 11.2 per cent, 13.8 per cent in constant currency, and underlying EBITDA by 13.8 per cent, 16.3 per cent in constant currency, to a reported $1,515m, underpinned by significant improvement in our free cash flow generation and reduced leverage.

“These results also demonstrate the strength and resilience of our business and the effectiveness of our strategy – with all three business services, voice, data and mobile money, contributing to revenue growth.

“We have also continued to invest in future growth opportunities as we expanded our distribution, modernised and expanded our network with 65 per cent of sites now on 4G, acquired new spectrum in Nigeria, Tanzania, Malawi and Chad, and entered into strategic partnerships in our mobile money business.

“Telecoms businesses provide strategically essential services to ensure the functioning of economies and communities and are, therefore, more resilient compared to some other sectors.”