Airtel Africa, a leading telecom operator, has revealed revenue growth, ARPU, 5G spectrum and Capex during the first quarter of 2023.
Airtel Africa’s total Capex (capital expenditure) increased by 14 percent to $748 million. Airtel Africa acquired spectrum in Nigeria, the DRC, Tanzania, Zambia and Kenya during the year.

“Over the year, we made an investment of $500 million on spectrum, including 5G. Despite this investment, and driven by a disciplined capital allocation policy, our balance sheet remains strong and has been further de-risked by the prepayment of $450 million HoldCo debt in July last year,” Airtel Africa CEO Olusegun Ogunsanya said.

Airtel Africa’s revenue rose 11.5 percent to $5.255 billion during the first quarter of 2023.

Airtel Africa’s mobile service revenue grew by 16.2 percent, driven by voice revenue growth of 11.8 percent and data revenue growth of 23.8 percent. Airtel Africa’s mobile money revenue grew by 29.6 percent.

Airtel Africa has achieved ARPU growth of 7.4 percent largely driven by increased usage across voice, data and mobile money.

Airtel Africa’s mobile money transaction value increased by 41.3 percent, with Q4’23 annualised transaction value exceeding $102 billion.

Airtel Africa’s customer base grew 9 percent to 140 million, as the penetration of mobile data and mobile money services continued to rise, driving a 16.9 percent increase in data customers to 54.6 million and a 20.4 percent increase in mobile money customers to 31.5 million.