Airtel has today reported double-digit growth and stronger performance in the second quarter of 2020, with revenue up 19.6%. The strong financial performance for the pan-African telecom in the half-year demonstrates continued growth and progress in spite of the interruptions from COVID-19 and the associated restrictions of the activities of both consumers and businesses in our countries of operation.
Airtel has been a fast-growing telecoms business with over 116.4 million customers in 14 markets – Eastern Africa, Francophone Africa and Nigeria Huge growth potential in Africa given:
- A growing population and growing middle-class
- Technology implementation and increase in smartphone users
- Low broadband and banking penetration so people increasingly use mobile to transfer money
Making a significant investment in 4G Promoter of the cashless economy. Airtel’s revenue increased by 16.4% on a constant currency basis to $1,815m – a track record of consistent delivery of double-digit expansion over the last 11 quarters. Underlying EBITDA margin at 44.7%.
Airtel has registered growth in Voice and Data which led to a mobile revenue increase of 15.3% Mobile Money revenue growth of 30.4%.
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Airtel East Africa’s Financial performance
This business segment includes Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. In East Africa, Airtel’s performance continued to be strong with 14.1% revenue growth in reported currency and 21.9% in constant currency. Revenue growth in Q2’21 accelerated to 17.7% and constant currency growth of 26% was supported by growth in all key business segments. Growth was broad-based across all services and all markets, as 5 out of 6 OPCOs delivered more than 20% revenue growth. Constant currency revenue growth was partially offset by the currency devaluation mainly in Zambia and Kenya.
Voice revenue was $312m, with double-digit growth of 12.8% in constant currency as a result of a 13.9% customer base growth and 20.1% growth of voice usage per customer, which was marginally offset by a 0.4% voice ARPU drop. Total minutes on the Airtel network were up by 36% led by an increase in voice usage per customer.
Data revenue amounted to $174m, up by 29.6% supported by data customer base growth of 22.9% and data ARPU increase of 5.1%. Growth was recorded across all OPCOs, driven by the expansion of network infrastructure, with 68.6% of the sites now on our 4G network as compared to 60% during the previous period. Our mobile network in Zambia, Malawi and Uganda now consists of 100% of 4G sites. The total data usage on our network grew by 83.8% and 4G data usage almost tripled and now contributes 44.6% to the total data usage. Data usage per customer reached 2.6GB, up by 49.1% from 1.7GB per customer in previous period.
During the period “Pay as you Go tariffs” in certain markets were updated and this resulted in a revenue reallocation of bundle products of voice and data in such tariffs. On a like for like basis voice and data revenue growth was 8.7% and 38% respectively.
Airtel’s Mobile money revenue in East Africa grew by 42.9% in constant currency, largely driven by growth in Zambia, Tanzania, Uganda, and Malawi. Revenue growth of 50.1% in Q2’21 was largely driven by the removal of certain restrictions on movement as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the reinstatement of P2P fees in the majority of markets which were temporarily waived in the first quarter. The revenue growth of 42.9% was driven by a 29.5% increase in our customer base and a 23.9% growth in the transaction value per customer, supported by the expansion of our distribution network.
