Airtel Africa has reported steady growth in its data subscriber base across 14 African countries, even as overall revenue declined during the quarter from April to June 2020. According to the company’s latest financial report, the number of data subscribers grew by 4.5%, increasing from 35.4 million in March to 37 million by June. Total subscribers rose modestly, with around 900,000 new users joining the network.
The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting movement restrictions significantly affected the company’s financial performance. In its earlier financial update from May, Airtel had anticipated challenges to its voice revenue due to economic constraints and limited mobility. However, it expressed optimism that rising demand for data services and mobile money could counterbalance the decline in voice revenue.
Performance Overview
While Airtel recorded growth in data services, with 279.5 billion megabytes of data consumed during the quarter (up from 219 billion megabytes in the previous quarter), this increase was insufficient to completely offset the declining voice revenue. Data revenue grew by 35.7% year-on-year to $265 million and now accounts for 31.1% of Airtel’s total revenue.
Conversely, voice services, which remain the company’s largest revenue stream, accounted for 53.3% of total revenue, down from 58.9% a year earlier. Voice revenue fell by 10% quarter-on-quarter, declining to $456 million in June from $510 million in March. Nigeria, Airtel’s largest market, experienced the steepest decline in voice revenue at 10.8%, attributed to reduced traditional call usage. Similar declines were observed in East Africa and Francophone Africa, although these regions still saw growth in voice usage.
Despite quarterly declines, Airtel’s overall revenue and voice revenue showed year-on-year increases of 7% and 2.2%, respectively.
A Focus on Data and Non-Voice Services
Airtel has been intensifying its efforts in non-voice services, including data and mobile money operations. These accounted for 46.7% of the company’s total revenue for the quarter. The telecom giant has expanded its 4G network across the continent, upgrading 70% of its sites in Nigeria, where 4G broadband was introduced in 2018. The faster broadband now contributes 58% of total data usage in the country. Similarly, 4G coverage has reached 68% of sites in East Africa and 58% in Francophone Africa.
Mobile money also continued to grow, with the number of users increasing to 18.5 million by June, up from 18.3 million in March. Transaction values rose by 12.5% to $9 billion during the period, although mobile money revenue remained flat.
