Airtel has reported a 53.02% growth in mobile money transactions in Africa during the Quarter 2 financial year, ended September 30.
The telecom company saw transactions of US$3.34 billion in the quarter.
The number of customers for Airtel Money also increased by 23.26%. Airtel now has 5.3 million users in Africa growing from 4.3 million in the last quarter.
The company also had growth in the data revenue.
“Data revenues stood at $ 115 Mn with growth of 56.8% Y-o-Y, led by increase in data customer base by 50.4% and higher usage per customer by 24.5%. Data revenues contribute to 10.1% of overall Africa revenues vis-à-vis 6.6% in the corresponding quarter last year,” the company said.
In a statement, Mr. Christian de Faria, MD and CEO, Africa, said: “I am delighted to note that mobile data revenues in Africa have grown by 57% Y-o-Y to clock $115 Mn in this quarter, which is now 10% of the total revenues. Our robust 3G networks have supported the doubling of data volumes Y-o-Y, and we have been gearing up for much more growth. Airtel money transaction values have also crossed $ 1 Bn a month. More than 5 Mn customers are carrying out a daily average of 1.4 million transactions on Airtel Money. We are delighted to be in the forefront of this twin opportunity – mobile data and m-commerce, both of which have enormous potential to change quality of lives of people in Africa.”
The company expected to have a positive effect in the mobile money space with the partnership with Equity Bank’s Finserve MVNO. The bank expects to launch its mobile money service anytime soon that will compete with the largest in East Africa, Safaricom’s MPesa.