Airtel Africa Plc has released its Full Year Audited Financial Statement revealing a 21.3% growth in revenue from $3.89 billion in 2021 to $4.71 billion in the current period.
Net profit for the full year period appreciated significantly by 82% from $451 million in 2021 to $755 million.
The increase in net profit is attributable to a higher operating profit compared to the prior period. Operating profit grew by 37% from $1.12 billion to $1.54 billion in the current period.
However, in Q4 2021, the company reported a 19% growth in revenue of $1.22 billion from $1.04 billion in the corresponding period of 2020, while profit after tax in the same quarter, appreciated by 56% to stand at $240 million.
Key highlights of the report
The group reported double-digit growth across all key services; as Voice revenue, data revenue and mobile revenue grew by 13.2%, 31.8%, and 37.9%, respectively.
The FY 2022 financial statement revealed that the company’s revenue from Nigeria made up roughly 40% of the total revenue, thereby contributing the highest, compared to East Africa and Francophone Africa.
In Nigeria, revenue grew by 21% from $1.55 billion in the corresponding period of 2021 to $1.88 billion, as Data revenue growth continued to be a key driver of growth in Nigeria, growing by 33.7%.
Net growth of 2.4 million customers was recorded over the full year, despite being affected by the NIN-SIM linkage regulations in the first half of the year, there was recovery in the second half as 4 million customers were added to the existing customers.
Airtel Africa recorded taxation for the period at approximately $469 million appreciating by over 66%, from the prior year period.
The group’s customer base expanded to 128.4 million, growing by 8.7%, with increased penetration across mobile data and mobile money services.
Airtel Africa Plc last traded at N1400.00 per share and its market capitalization stands at N5.26 trillion as at Tuesday, May 11, 2022. Year-to-date performance shows that the share price of the company has appreciated by 46.60%.
What the management is saying
The Chief Executive Officer of Airtel Nigeria, Segun Ogunsanya, commented on the Full-Year result saying, “We have delivered strong double-digit growth in revenues across all our regions and all our key services, with improving margins driven by strong cost control, and expanding cash generation which is enabling us to continue to invest in our network and services and expand our distribution, as well as strengthening our balance sheet and increasing our returns to shareholders. We are connecting more customers in new and existing coverage areas and driving usage levels and ARPUs to new highs.”
“We have successfully executed on a number of strategic initiatives in the year, with tower sales completed in four countries, $550m of minority investments secured for our mobile money business and a successful buyout of minorities in our Nigerian operation. Our receipt last month of a full PSB license in Nigeria will help us to accelerate financial inclusion in the territory and drive our mobile money business even faster.
“While the fundamentals of our six-pillar growth strategy remain unchanged, we are looking to accelerate our performance through a greater focus on digitalisation and we have underpinned our strategic pillars with our sustainability ambition.
“I am particularly proud of the progress we have made in articulating our sustainability strategy this year as well as the partnership we announced with UNICEF to help drive and support educational programmes in our territories. I very much look forward to us publishing both our pathway to net zero and our first full sustainability report later in the year.
“Turning to the outlook, long-term opportunities for us remain attractive. While mindful of currency devaluation and repatriation risks, we continue to work actively to mitigate all our material risks and to deliver value for all our stakeholders. There are increasing challenges from global inflationary pressures, but we continue to target revenue growth ahead of the market and moderate margin expansion,” he added.
Finally, the telecom giant’s CEO stated that the company is working to improve its performance by focusing more on digitization.
