Airtel Africa reports double-digit revenue and customer growth

Airtel Africa grew its customer base by 10% and revenue by 12%, for the first nine months of the financial year, as it increased capex and spent more on 4G and 5G spectrum across Africa.

Paula Gilbert, Editor

February 2, 2023

2 Min Read
Airtel Africa CEO Segun Ogunsanya.
Airtel Africa CEO Segun Ogunsanya.(Source: Airtel Africa)

Airtel Africa has reported double-digit revenue and customer growth in the first three quarters of the financial year, as it increased capital investment (capex) and spent more on spectrum.

The pan-African operator released a trading update on Thursday for the nine-month period ended December 31, 2022, which showed its total customer base increased 10.1% year-on-year (YoY) to 138.5 million across 14 markets.

This followed similar growth reported in its half-year results.

The operator said that the penetration of mobile data and mobile money services continued to rise in the third quarter and in turn drove up the data customer base by 13.6% year-over-year – to 51.3 million users – and the mobile money customer base grew 22.2% – to 31.4 million.

Revenue for the nine months increased by 12.1%, to US$3.9 billion, while earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) were US$1.9 billion, up 12.6% in reported currency and 17.4% in constant currency.

Climbing capex

Profit after tax was $523 million, up 1.7%, while capex increased 5.8% to $457 million.

"We will continue to invest in expanding our network and evolving our service offerings to further deepen both financial and digital inclusion across our markets," said Airtel Africa CEO Segun Ogunsanya.

"We have especially focused on enhancing our spectrum footprint across all our markets. Over the last nine months we have spent almost $490 million on 4G and 5G spectrum across key markets to improve network capacity and quality, future-proof the company for continued growth opportunities and facilitate economic progress in all our markets," he added.

That additional spectrum was acquired in Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Tanzania, Zambia and Kenya over the nine-month period.

Mobile services revenue in Nigeria grew by 20.9%; in East Africa by 11.9%; and in Francophone Africa by 11.8%, while overall group services revenue was up 15.9% to $3.5 billion – all on a constant currency basis. Airtel said the growth was on the back of voice revenue growth of 12.7% and data revenue increasing 22.3%.

Mobile Money revenue grew by 29.8%, driven by 32.5% growth in East Africa and 21.7% in Francophone Africa.

"I am particularly excited by the performance of our mobile money business, with annualized transaction value reaching nearly $100 billion, as we continue to drive financial inclusion in the continent," Ogunsanya added.

— Paula Gilbert, Editor, Connecting Africa

About the Author

Paula Gilbert

Editor, Connecting Africa

Paula has been the Editor of Connecting Africa since June 2019 and has been reporting on key developments in Africa's telecoms and ICT sectors for most of her journalistic career.

The award-winning South Africa-based journalist previously worked as a producer and reporter for business television channels Bloomberg TV Africa and CNBC Africa, was the telecoms editor at online publication ITWeb, and started her career in radio news. She has an Honors degree in Journalism from Rhodes University.

Paula was recognized by Empower Africa as one of 35 trailblazers who shaped Africa's tech landscape in 2023 and won the Excellence in ICT Journalism category at the MTN Women in ICT Awards in 2017.

Travel is always on Paula's mind, she has visited 40 countries so far and is currently researching her next adventure.

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