By Daniel Edu
The telecom company explained that the negative profit after tax was mainly driven by a foreign exchange loss of $471 million recorded in finance cost before tax and $317 million after tax. This loss was a result of the devaluation of the Nigerian currency during June 2023. The impact of this event has been classified as a non-operating exceptional item.
The loss came in the wake of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s decision to unify all segments of the Nigerian forex market. The bank merged all exchange windows into the Investors & Exporters (I&E) window as part of the Federal Government’s initiative to enhance liquidity and stability in the market and attract foreign investors to the Nigerian economy.
Despite the financial setback, Airtel managed to achieve growth in its total customer base, which expanded by 8.8 per cent to 143.1 million. The company attributes this growth to the increasing adoption of mobile data and mobile money services. Notably, data customers increased by 22.0 per cent to 56.8 million, while mobile money customers saw a substantial rise of 24.3 per cent to 34.3 million.
