Airtel Africa – the African division of Indian telecoms group Bharti Airtel – has reported underlying revenue of USD4.7 billion for the year to end-March 2022, an increase of 21.2% year-on-year. EBITDA for the year was up 29.0% annually to USD2.31 billion, with an EBITDA margin of 49.0% whilst underlying profit attributable to the company’s owners grew to USD631 million from USD339 million in the previous year.
Airtel Africa counted a total of 128.4 million mobile subscriptions as at 31 March 2022, up from 118.2 million a year earlier, and including 46.7 million data users (40.6 million in 2022). ARPU improved to USD3.2 from USD2.8 in the year ended 31 March 2021.
Commenting on the results, CEO Segun Ogunsanya was quoted as saying: ‘This is another strong set of results for Airtel Africa, demonstrating our solid execution as we continue to enrich the lives of a growing number of people through leveraging the sizeable opportunity to promote digital and financial inclusion across our markets. 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.’