Leadership at multi-national telecommunications and media firm Millicom believes 2016 will be the year for a better return from its operations in Africa.

According to its Q4 and FY 2015 results announced this week, for Africa Q4 reported organic revenue growth of 13.4% to $258 million. EBITDA was $17 million after $26 million of restructuring and one-off items.

The disposal of its DRC was listed as one of the highlights of Q4 2015. The company announced on 8 February 2016 that it has signed an agreement for the sale of its Tigo business in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to Orange S.A. The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals.

Millicom has confirmed it will sell 100% of the share capital in Oasis SA for a total cash consideration of $160 million.

CEO Mauricio Ramos said they have employed stringent capital disciplines. "We have sold the DRC business and in 2016 we intend to deliver a significantly improved cash profile from this region. To that end we believe that rationalisation is beneficial both to customers and key to the development of the market. In 2016, we intend to deliver a significantly improved cash profile from the Africa businesses. To that end we have rapidly restructured the regional leadership and country operations in order to accelerate growth in the core business and mitigate challenges in the macro economy."

Ramos added that the fourth quarter delivered organic service revenue growth at 6% and while the company's topline performance had been marred by the impact of currency depreciation and weakening economies, the business presented a creditable performance.

"2015 was a good year operationally, as we focused on profitable and responsible growth, combined with efficiency measures to enhance margins and improve cash flow. Adjusting for adverse currency movements we were in the lower end of our guidance range on revenue but in the top half of our range on EBITDA. I am particularly pleased that we started to increase margins in 2015 with the Adjusted EBITDA margin improving by 0.7% to 33.7%," Ramos continued.

Africa outlook

Africa remains a critical component of the company's growth strategy and an estimated 15% of overall revenue is generated by African markets, the biggest of which is Tanzania.

In early December 2015 the CEO of Millicom's Africa Division Cynthia Gordon spoke of the intention to leverage the role of the internet and digital technology.

She said the focus is to grow the company's core voice and SMS business, and accelerate growth products including B2B and MFS (Mobile Financial Services).