Airtel Africa made US$151 million loses in first quarter of 2023

Airtel Africa has reported a loss after tax in its Q1—April 1 to June 30, 2023 results.

The telecom reported a loss after tax of $151 million, compared to a profit after tax of $178 million during the same period in 2022 due to the currency devaluation in Nigeria.

The telco’s financial statement reported that its mobile services revenue grew by 19.1% in constant currency, driven by voice revenue growth of 11.9% and data revenue growth of 29.8%.

Mobile money revenue grew by 31.2% in constant currency. Similarly, its total customer base grew by 8.8% to 143.1 million, as the penetration of mobile data and mobile money services continued to rise, driving a 22.0% increase in data customers to 56.8 million and a 24.3% increase in mobile money customers to 34.3 million.

The telco’s revenue also grew by 9.6% to $1.37 billion in Q1 2023, compared to $1.25 billion in the same period in 2022.

Airtel Africa’s CEO, Olusegun Ogunsanya, stated that the group delivered a strong operating performance with improvement in both constant currency revenue growth and Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization (EBITDA) margin despite the challenging macro environment. The telco saw an improvement in voice, data, and mobile money but its results were impacted by foreign exchange “headwinds”.

Despite the foreign exchange devaluation, the company will continue to have positive outlooks for Airtel in Nigeria and sees it as the most significant market for the company.