Airtel Africa, a provider of telecommunications and mobile money services with a presence in 14 countries across Africa, has announced the launch of a comprehensive – and ambitious – sustainability strategy.
The Airtel strategy sets out its plans to improve the lives of millions of people across Africa through digital and financial inclusion and access to education. The strategy, says Airtel, also includes specific goals around environmental protection and the ongoing development of a rewarding, diverse and inclusive workplace.
Importantly perhaps, the strategy sets specific goals and commitments, including how they will be achieved and the milestones along the way. They include goals relating to data security, service quality, the supply chain, commitments to employees, digital inclusion, financial inclusion, access to education, greenhouse gas emissions reduction and environmental stewardship.
This is not the only piece of positive news from Airtel Africa. It comes hard on the heels of continuing good results for the company.
This comes at a time when Indian giant Bharti Airtel’s African business is doing particularly well. According to Indian press reports, Airtel Africa’s Q2 net profit more than doubled year-on-year to $192 million. In fact profit for the half year ending in September more than doubled year-on-year to $335 million, while revenue for the same period rose 25% to $2.27 billion. This is despite the impact of Covid.
Operationally Airtel Africa says it has continued network modernisation and expansion, aligned with an extension of its distribution capabilities, which have together contributed towards continued strong growth in ARPUs across voice, data and mobile money.
Net debt has fallen and the customer base has risen (albeit monthly churn is also up). Data revenue and voice revenue both grew as did mobile money business revenue, continuing Airtel Africa’s trend towards profitability of the past few years.
