Despite an economic meltdown as a result of the novel coronavirus pandemic (Covid-19), mobile communication network provider Airtel Malawi Plc has registered a huge growth in profit after tax.
According to the unmodified financial statement for half of the year ended June 30, 2020 the Company has registered a profit of K11,415-Million up from K2,016-Million for last year.
Airtel Malawi Board Chair Alex Chitsime says in the statement the huge rise in profits is mainly due to an increase in operating profit and lower finance cost.
“Lower finance cost was due to lower interest expense on account of repayment of Shareholder loan in 2019 and also due to stability of the kwacha against the Us Dollar,” says Chitsime.
The results peg Airtel’s revenue growth at 23.7% which was largely driven by the growth of its customer base up by 20.6% to 4-million.
“Revenue growth was broad based across all key segments; voice up 8.5%, data up 55.3% and other revenue up 36.7%.
Chitsime says despite the economic impacts of Covid-19, the Company’s view on the medium term opportunity for growth in Malawi has not changed as the telco sector will continue to benefit from population growth and need for increased connectivity. “We expect to continue to implement our strategy focusing on increasing mobile penetration in Malawi through investments in rural unserved market as well as digitalize the economy by increasing penetration of data usage,” he says.