Airtel Uganda pays $267m in dividends on profit growth

Airtel Uganda has declared a final dividend of Shs2.50 ($0.0007) per share, bringing the total dividend for year ended December 31, 2024 to Shs315 billion ($85 million) at the rate of Shs7.88 ($0.002) per share after taking into consideration quarterly interim dividends offered during the year.

The latest dividend declaration by the Ugandan Securities Exchange-listed telco follows an improvement in the performance of its business that yielded a 6.7 percent growth in net profit to Shs316.74 billion ($85.46 million), buoyed by significant growth in data revenues from Shs296.95 billion ($80.12 million) a year earlier.

The company says the final dividend of Shs100 billion ($26.98 million) will be paid by April 28, 2025 to the shareholders registered in its share register at the close of business on April 8, 2025.

The company’s audited financial statements show total revenues increased by 11.4 percent to Shs1.98 trillion ($534.26 million) from Shs1.78 trillion ($480.29 million) in 2023 largely driven by data business whose revenues grew by 25.3 percent to Shs899.76 billion ($242.78 million) from Shs717.88 billion ($193.7 million) helped by a 27.8 percent growth in overall data customers to 7.3 million.

“The continued investment in network expansion and enhancement, coupled with improvement in overall smartphone penetration has resulted in a 25.3 percent growth in data usage per subscriber with total data traffic on the network up by 41.7 percent over the period. 4G traffic contributed 83.1 percent of the total data traffic, up from 71.6 percent in the 2023 financial year,” the company says.

Data revenue contribution to service revenues improved to 45.5 percent from 40.4 percent in 2023.

The total customer base grew by 13.9 percent to 16.9 million while data customer penetration continues to rise, with a 27.8 percent increase in data customers to 7.3 million. 

Data usage per customer increased by 25.3 percent to 5.45 GBs, with smartphone penetration increasing by 290 basis points to reach 38.7 percent.

The company’s voice revenue grew by 2.3 percent to Shs1.01 trillion from Shs990.38 billion on the back of continued growth in the customer base driven by a comprehensive usage and retention strategy which contributed to a 3.2 percent growth in voice traffic across the network.

But during the year, the voice revenue growth rate was impacted by a number of regulatory interventions—reduction of the local interconnect rate from Shs45 ($0.012) to Shs26 ($0.007) effective September 2023— and a mandatory international termination rate drop for $ 0.25 to $ 0.15 for a six-month period effective April 2024.

As a result, Voice revenue contribution to service revenue dropped to 51.2 percent from 55.7 percent in 2023.

“The home broadband segment continues to also expand with a 33.1 percent growth year-on-year (YoY) in active user base for the year, while on the fibre front our overall coverage across the country increased by 516Km to support continued growth in the enterprise business offerings and faster speed across the network. These segments are expected to support and drive future data revenue growth,” the company says.

Net finance costs increased 7.7 percent to Shs177.38 billion ($47.86 million) from Shs164.76 billion ($44.45 million) primarily due to increase in the interest cost on lease liabilities and borrowings.

“Lease liabilities increased following the addition of 165 4G sites and the extension of the American Tower Company (‘ATC’) tower lease agreement during the year, which therefore contributed to an increase in interest costs,” the company says

“Interest cost on borrowings was primarily impacted by the increase in 182 days T-bill rates by 12.8 percent over last year.”

Airtel Uganda Plc which is part of the Bharti Airtel Group of Companies in October 2023 floated eight (8) billion or 20 per cent ordinary shares on USE through a public offer as part of a regulatory requirement to allow locals have a share of the pie.

The issued shares were listed on the USE making Airtel Uganda the second listed telecoms company on Uganda's stock exchange after MTN Uganda listed in December 2021.

In 2019 the Uganda government directed telecom operators in the country to list at least 20 percent of their shares on the local bourse within two years in a move designed to encourage local ownership.