Airtel’s Africa business reported a net profit of $192 million in the fiscal second quarter, which more than doubled year-on-year (YoY) and rose over 35 per cent sequentially. The profit growth was on the back of a sharp reduction in finance costs coupled with strong growth in data and mobile money revenues.

Revenue for the quarter to September rose 20 per cent on-year and 4.31 per cent sequentially to $1.16 billion, the company said on Thursday.

Accordingly, Airtel Africa’s profit for the first half ended September 2021 more than doubled on-year to $335 million, while revenue for the same period rose 25 per cent YoY to $2.27 billion.

“Our first-half financial performance has been strong. The first half of last year, and especially Q1, was impacted by the start of Covid, but even after adjusting for these effects, our revenue growth rates for the half-year for the Group and all our service segments are ahead of our FY’21 revenue growth trends, and in reported terms, these are all in strong double-digit,” Segun Ogunsanya, Airtel Africa’s recently appointed new chief executive officer, said in an official statement on Thursday.

Net finance cost in the July-September quarter fell 23% on-year and nearly 27% sequentially to $71 million. 

Airtel’s Africa arm said, “The continued strength of the business has led the board to declare an interim dividend of 2 cents per share in accordance with an upgraded dividend policy which sets a new target base dividend for FY’22 of 5 cents per share, with the aim to grow this at a mid-to high- single-digit percentage each year.”