Airtel Africa reported profit gains subscriber growth as the group continues to battle against currency devaluation on the continent.
Airtel Africa stated 2024 Q1 (end of June 30) profits grew 120.3% year-on-year to US$31 million, up from a loss of US$151 million in Q1 2023. Airtel noted profit was impacted by US$80m due an “exceptional derivative” and forex losses from the further depreciation in the Nigerian naira in the first quarter.
Revenue declined by 16.1% to US$1.15 billion and EBITDA was down declined 23.3% to US$523 million.
Total customer base grew by 8.6% to 155.4 million. Data customer penetration grew by 13.4% to 64.4 million. Usage of data grew by 25% to 6.2GB as smartphone penetration increased by 4.7% to 41.7%.
Mobile money revenue grew by 10.1% from US$201 million in the same quarter last year to US$222 million.
Bharti Airtel CEO Sunil Taldar said a key priority for the group is to grow the business through enterprise, fibre and data centre businesses across footprint in Africa.
“The continued revenue growth momentum once again reflects the resilient demand for our services, with sustained growth in our customer base and usage. Our superior execution enables us to capture these opportunities, whilst retaining our reputation as a cost leader across the industry,” said Taldar.
