French telecoms firm Orange's Africa operations in Mali, Guinea and Ivory Coast have led the way in boosting the group’s revenue results for the first quarter ending 31 March 2014.

According to a press statement from the operator, revenues in Africa and the Middle East continued to rise steadily, with a 6% revenue increase driven by the three African nations.

In its home market France, the telco continued to experience revenue decline of 4.9% as the French market settles following the entrance of more competitors there.

Elsewhere in Europe, revenues also declined by 8.4% caused by price reductions in Belgium and Slovakia.

Orange’s consolidated revenues were 9.8 billion euros, a 3.8% decrease on a comparable basis, the statement notes.  

Commenting on the first quarter results Stéphane Richard, chairman and chief executive officer of the Orange group, described the results as “satisfactory”.  

"Orange's first quarter 2014 performance was very satisfactory, aided in large part by the continued strong commercial momentum in our core countries."

The group also managed to add more customers during the period with an increase of 4.2% year on year to reach 239.4 million customers across all its operations.

In Africa and the Middle East the mobile customer base grew by 11.4% year on year with 91.3 million customers at the end of the first quarter. And Orange Money had 9.9 million customers at 31 March 2014.

Orange's other Africa operations include Cameroon, Egypt, Mauritius, Uganda, and Kenya.