Airtel Africa, the African entity of telecoms giant, Bharti Airtel, has reported an 8.4% revenue growth to $1,640 million in H1 with Q2 growth accelerating to 9.8%. In constant currency terms, revenue grew 11.4% in H1 and 12.6% in Q2. The constant currency revenue growth of 11.4% was driven by double-digit growth in Nigeria and East Africa, partially offset by a slight decrease in Rest of Africa.
Subscribers numbers grew by 10.4% from 94.1 million as at September 2018 to 103.9 million as at September 2019. Customer base for data services grew by 17.7% from 27.1 million to 31.9 million during the same period under review.
Growth was broad based across all services, with revenue in Voice, Data and Mobile Money up by 3.2%, 37.8% and 46.5% respectively.
Operating profit increased by 8.6% as a result of strong revenue growth, while operating expenditures as percentage of revenue remained broadly flat.
Airtel Africa declared an interim dividend of 3 cent a piece. It listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange in July at N363 per share.