Airtel Africa has reported a Ksh. 33.1 Billion profit after tax for the period ended 31st December 2019, this is a 2% decline from the previous year when they reported Ksh. 33.8 Billion.
The profitability was driven by a 9.9% growth in revenue. This was due to a 1.6% increase in the voice revenue to stand at $ 1.4 Million, 36.3% growth in data revenue to stand at $ 677 Million, 36.3% growth in mobile money revenue to stand at $228 Million. During the period, Finance costs reduced by $ 57 Million driven by a 17% decrease in interest costs, which more than offset an increase in other finance charges as a result of one off gains incurred in the prior year, higher costs related to the initial public offering and higher impact of foreign exchange on debt.
Expenses on the other hand increased by 6.7% to $ 1,419 Million up from $ 1,330 in the previous year.
During the period, Airtel Nigeria signed an agreement with Intercellular Nigeria Limited, in order to acquire an additional 10 MHz spectrum in the 900 MHz band in Nigeria for a consideration of $70 million.
The telco also launched Airtel TV in Nigeria and Zambia with more than 5000 hours of videos free of any subscription fees. The Airtel TV app is available in Android as well as iOS and it is a one stop platform for Live TV, Music videos, news, sports and much more. In addition, Airtel TV also offers live TV on popular channels such as Trace (Africa, Urban, Tropical, Mziki, Sport Stars and Gospel), Bloomberg Television, Gametoon, Bollywood, Fashion Box, God TV, Nautical, Al Jazeera English and Inspiration TV, among others.
They also signed an agreement with Western Union to enable their customers to send and receive money international through their phones. Airtel Tanzania was allocated an additional spectrum of 10 MHz in 1800 MHz band with an annual fee of $ 0.6 Mn.