Airtel plans mobile money business roll-out in Nigeria

Airtel Africa has said it will soon roll out its mobile money business in Nigeria.

Raghunath Mandava, its chief executive officer, said this as highlights of its operations show growth across the company’s business products.

The telecommunications and mobile money service provider, with presence in 14 countries across East, Central and West Africa, said it also plans to list its shares on the London Stock Exchange.

At the moment, Mandava said the company is working towards securing approval of a brand name and obtaining a license for the mobile payment service.

“I am pleased to report a strong start to the financial year,” the CEO disclosed in the company’s quarterly results for the first quarter of this year ended June 30, 2019.

“The business continues to show momentum, and we are confident of delivering sustained growth across Voice, Data and Mobile Money, underpinning our medium-term aspirations for revenue and profit growth,” he said.

Mandava said the company’s results are clear evidence of the effectiveness of the company’s strategy.

He said the company’s performance in the latest report showed revenue grew by about 6.9 percent, from $744.5million to $795.9million. Also, the company’s customer base rose by 9.3 percent to about 99.7million.

The growth in revenue was attributed to the double-digits growth across business products in Nigeria and East Africa.

Details showed a constant increase in Voice revenue by 3.2 percent, data revenue 35.9 percent, and Mobile Money revenue 41.8 percent.

He said the company continued the aggressive investment in its 4G network infrastructure, with nearly 1,500 additional sites across its operational locations.

On plans to officially list Airtel’s ordinary shares on the London Stock Exchange,Mandava said arrangements had reached an advanced stage.

In a statement filed with the Nigerian Stock Exchange on Wednesday, the CEO said already eight global commercial banks, including JP Morgan, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, have been appointed to work on the company’s initial public offer plan.

He said the primary proceeds from the IPO are expected to be used by the company to reduce its external debt stock.

The listing on the London market will follow the successful pricing of its IPO on the Nigerian Stock Exchange at about 80 pence (about N363) per share on June 28.

The offer comprised about 744,047,619 new Shares (being the total of 704,819,651 new shares in respect of the global offer to institutional investors in various jurisdictions outside Nigeria.

Another 39,227,968 new shares were offered to qualified institutional investors and high net worth investors in Nigeria, valued at about £595 million (about N270 billion, or $750 million).

Among the Nigerian investors in the telecoms firm is Awuneba Ajumogobia, who is listed as its only Nigerian shareholder and independent non executive director.