Work from home drives Airtel’s data revenue by 26.2% in nine months

Coronavirus-influenced work from home has driven revenue of Airtel Nigeria from data subscriptions by 26.2 percent for the nine-months ended 31 December 2020 to $397 million from $315 million generated during the corresponding period of 2019

In the 9-months’ unaudited results it filed to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) and analysed by Ripples Nigeria shows that data revenue represents 35.1 percent contribution to the total revenue of $1.13 million recorded from Nigerian operations.

Airtel Nigeria’s $1.13 million revenue represents the highest from any single country, and above the combined profit from East Africa operations which stood at $1.02 million and $704 million from Francaphone countries Operation.

Analysis also shows that Nigerian operations added 4.5 million new customers to its subscriber base during the period, from 39.9 million in 2019 to 44.4 million in 2020.

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Data subscriber numbers also rose to 18.8 million within the period from 15.2 million in 2019.

Speaking on the result, Chief Executive Officer, Airtel Africa, Raghunath Mandava, described the numbers from Nigeria as impressive despite the Covid-19 challenges.

“Nigeria is our largest market and we remain focused on bridging the digital divide and expanding our broadband capability in the country.”

For group revenue, Airtel Africa said in the first nine months of the financial year, the company recorded $2.87 billion in profit.

Growth for the nine months was recorded across all of its regions, with Nigeria up 21.6 percent, East Africa ahead with 23.4 percent and Francophone Africa rising by eight percent.