Airtel Africa has hit a market cap of N5.4 trillion and became the most valued public company in Nigeria, eclipsing Dangote Cement, in the elite club of SWOOTs ( stock worth over one trillion naira). But it was not a smooth ride; this company nearly packed up and left for India. Fortunately, some smarts came up with new ideas.
I had written: “Having no alternative, Airtel retooled its business model, and became a quasi-financial institution which offers telecommunication services. Yes, Airtel outsourced some infrastructure components of its business, improving its CAPEX and by doing that, had money to invest on its customers. The result has been superb”.
The Airtel Africa transformation is a great case study of the power of business model. Yes, most times, the problem is not the market but your business model. Blaming customers will not grow the business!
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In Tekedia Mini-MBA, I have a brief case study on Airtel Africa, using it to make a case why companies must do all to figure out a working business model. I see Airtel Africa as a quasi-financial institution in the business of telecoms. As a result of that model, it has great ratios.
Congratulations Airtel – the trophy goes to you.
Reuters
Meanwhile, MTN Nigeria continues to lead on the revenue table: “MTN Nigeria Communications Plc (MTNN) has reported turnover in the sum of N1.7 trillion for full-year 2021, a milestone that will help firm up its status as Nigeria’s biggest listed company by revenue.” Yes, MTNN has normalized the more than a trillion naira annual revenue which it began a few years ago.
The Nigerian operation of South African-owned MTN Group attained the new height after the number of its active data users surged by 1.7 million to 34.3 million, helping income from data sales increase by 55.3 per cent to N516 billion.
MTNN cited an extension of its coverage areas for 4G services October through December as the catalyst for the higher earnings from data.
Relative to its figure for 2020, revenue for last year grew by 22.9 per cent.
Airtel Overtakes Dangote Cement, Becomes Nigeria’s Most Capitalized Public Company
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The same telecom that kept exchanging hands, because no team was able to manage it responsibly and profitable for years, now it’s sitting comfortably at the top of the valuation pie.
You have to be extremely careful when mediocres tell you that something cannot work…