Airtel Africa says it has managed the implementation of the new ‘know-your-customer’ requirements in Nigeria, which meant a temporary stop to new customer activations, and recently posted 1.9 million net additions in the third quarter, taking its total customer additions to 3.1 million.

In its financial report for the period ended 31 December 2021, the company said new activations have been permitted in regulatory approved outlets in the country since the end of April 2021 and the number of approved outlets increased to over 9, 800 as of 31 December 2021.

The company said data revenue has also continued to be a key driver of growth in Nigeria, growing by 44.5% in constant currency, driven by the growth in data usage per customer to 4GB per month from 2.7GB per month in the prior period.

Airtel added that almost 90% of its sites in Nigeria now run on 4G and that there has been a 2% increase in smartphone penetration. This has resulted in data ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) of 44.1%.

Data revenue accounted for 39.4% of total revenue in Nigeria in the nine months period to 31 December 2021, up 4.2% from the previous period.

Segun Ogunsanya, Airtel Africa CEO said, “We have seen further improvement in our customer growth trends with Nigeria returning to strong growth. I’m particularly pleased with the developments in Nigeria, where in November, we received approval in principle for both a payment service bank (mobile money) licence and super-agent licence. We are now working closely with the Central Bank to meet all its conditions to receive the final operating licences and commence operations."

"This will enable us to expand our digital financial products and reach millions of Nigerians who do not have access to traditional financial services. We will continue to invest in expanding and evolving our platform to further deepen both financial and digital inclusion across Africa. I continue to see huge potential across voice, data and mobile money and our strategy is delivering against this opportunity.”