Airtel Nigeria adds 5m subscribers in one year

Airtel Nigeria released its first-quarter 2020 results for the period ended June 30, 2020, on Friday.

According to the financial results released by the telco, it witnessed a 5 million increase in subscribers from 37.5 million in June 2019 to 42.5 million in June 2020.

Total revenue grew by 8.9 percent to $341 million in Q1 2020 compared to $313 million in the corresponding period in 2019.

Providing a breakdown, Airtel said voice revenue accounted for $197 million of the total revenue, a 0.5 percent reduction from the $198 million recorded in June 2019.

Data revenue jumped 30 percent from $94 million in 2019 to $122 million.

“In Nigeria, revenue in constant currency increased by 17.1 percent, with reported revenue growth of 8.9 percent as a result of the Nigerian naira devaluation,” the telco said.

“The slowdown in revenue growth during the quarter was driven by the restriction on movements imposed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, which impacted customer usage, particularly in voice.

“Voice revenue increased 6.9 percent to $197m, which was supported by a 13.5 percent increase in the customer base and was partially offset by a 4.6 percent drop in voice ARPU.

“The ARPU decline was a result of a change in customer usage mix due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The customer base growth of 13.5 percent was driven by the expansion of our distribution network supported by the accelerated rollout of our network infrastructure.”

The company reported that it grew its customer base from 99.7 million to 111.5 million and grew total revenue from $796 million to $851 million.

Commenting on the results, Raghunath Mandava, Airtel Africa chief executive officer, said: “We focussed on expanding and maintaining our network to ensure it could cope with increasing demand, we kept our distribution up and running by increasing the penetration of digital recharges and stock levels, and we expanded our home broadband solutions to ensure customers could work and access entertainment remotely.

“The business showed its resilience even during these unprecedented circumstances with all key business segments – voice, data and mobile money, and all regions – Nigeria, East Africa and Francophone Africa contributing to growth.

“The outlook remains uncertain, particularly regarding a so-called potential second wave of infections and the actions governments will decide to take in that event.”

Mandava said the result is evidence of the growth opportunities available in the markets where they operate.