Sophia Michaels
Airtel Africa Plc has announced a loss after tax of $89 million for its full year ended March 2024.
This was due to a $549 million foreign exchange loss caused by the devaluations of the Naira in June 2024 and the Malawian kwacha in November 2023.
In its full-year report released on Thursday, the telco said its reported Revenue declined by 5.3 per cent to $4.98 billion, primarily due to the Naira’s devaluation.
“Loss after tax of $89m during the year ended March 31, 2024 was primarily impacted by the $549m net of tax impact of the exceptional derivative and foreign exchange losses.
“Nigerian constant currency revenue growth accelerated to 34.2 per cent in Q4’24 despite the challenging backdrop,” it said.
Meanwhile, the Chief Executive Officer of Airtel, Olusegun Ogunsanya, said the firm has embarked on reducing the risks brought about by currency devaluation.
“Furthermore, our rigorous approach to de-risking our balance sheet and our capital allocation priorities has materially reduced the currency devaluation risks on our business,” he affirmed.
Recall that Nigeria has devalued its currency twice between June last year and date, taking the Naira from around N460 per dollar to N1,400.
