Chinwendu Obienyi
As the corporate earnings continue to hold sway in the Nigerian market, Airtel Africa has announced that its revenue increased to $795.9 million from $744.5 million recorded in the corresponding period of 2018.
This represents an increase of 6.9 percent with constant currency growth of 10.2 percent with the company noting that it is preparing for the launch of Mobile Money business in Nigeria, while awaiting approval for its payment service bank license.
Details of the growth which were contained in the telecommunication company’s first-quarter 2019 results, posted on the website of the Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE) further showed that its customer base grew by 9.3 percent to 99.7 million in the first quarter of 2019 and revenue growth of 10.2 percent in constant currency was driven by double-digit growth in Nigeria and East Africa, although this was partially offset by a decline in revenue in the rest of Africa where the company operates.
Commenting on the results, Chief Executive Officer, Airtel Africa, Raghunath Mandava, noted that the company is pleased to report a strong start to the financial year in its first quarterly results since the Initial Public Offer (IPO) while adding that the results, which are in line with the company’s expectations, are clear evidence of the effectiveness of its strategy across Voice, Data and Mobile Money.
Mandava said, “Voice revenue, our largest business product, was up 3 percent largely driven by 9 percent growth in our customer base, now reaching nearly 100 million customers across our footprint. Data revenue, our largest contributor to growth, was up 36 percent as an increasing number of customers relied on our high-quality and high-speed LTE network, resulting in a 79 percent growth in data usage. Mobile Money revenue, our fastest growing business, increased by 42 percent as we expanded our distribution reach”.
According to him, “We continued to invest in our 4G network, adding nearly 1,500 sites; now more than half of our sites are 4G. We also continue to prepare for the launch of our Mobile Money business in Nigeria, securing approval of the brand name, an important step as we await approval for our payment service bank license”.