Airtel Africa Plc has reported Ksh 20.1 billion in net profit for the June quarter, up from Ksh 4 billion reported during a similar in 2024.
Airtel Africa Chief Executive Officer Sunil Taldar says the improved results were due to strong customer growth, rising demand for data and mobile money services including in markets such as Kenya and East Africa.
Total revenue grew by 24.9pc to $1.415 billion on sustained expansion in voice, data, and mobile money services.
Voice revenue increased 13.9pc while data revenue rose 38.1pc, driven by a 17.4pc increase in data customers to 75.6 million.
This was due to better performance in regional units in East Africa where Airtel has a presence in Kenya. The revenue for the East Africa region grew 17.6pc to Ksh 64 billion.
“We are very pleased with the strong growth in our operating and financial performance in the first quarter. The strength of this performance and the scale of the growth we achieved reflect the sustained demand for our services and the strength of our business model to meet these demands,” said Taldar.
The customer base growth was largely driven by expansion of both increased network coverage and the increasing scale of the distribution in Kenya and Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.
Mobile money revenue grew by 31pc in reported currency and by 30.3pc in constant currency, driven by strong growth both in East and Francophone Africa.
“The continued expansion of our mobile money portfolio and the advancement of enterprise and digital payments contributed to a 35% growth in annualised transaction value to $162bn. We will continue to focus on technology and the range of product offerings to deliver a differentiated experience for our customers,” he added.
During the quarter, the Group added over 2,300 new network sites, expanding total sites to 37,579 and fibre coverage to over 79,600 km.
4G population coverage increased to 74.7pc, up 3.4 percentage points from a year ago. The Group also advanced its debt localisation strategy, increasing the share of local currency debt to 95pc, up from 86pc in the prior year.
Capital expenditure declined to Ksh 15.6 million during the period, primarily due to timing differences. Airtel Africa maintained its full-year capital expenditure at Ksh 93.6 million to Ksh 96.9 million.
By Allan Aoko
