Sonatel Group profit rises by 10% in 2022

The Sonatel Group has recorded a consolidated net profit of 279 billion CFA francs (US$450 million) at the end of the 2022 financial year.

This means that the telecoms company recorded 10.5% growth compared to 252.5 billion CFA francs (US$407.4 million) in 2021. The results were in line with forecasts despite tough competition and a high level of investment to support customer needs.

Sonatel is an Orange subsidiary operating in five West African countries, namely Senegal, Mali, Guinea, Guinea Bissau and Sierra Leone.

The group reported revenue of 1.45 trillion CFA francs (US$2.35 billion) for the year ended December 2022, a 9% increase year-over-year (YoY).

The telco attributed its performance to "operational efficiency despite tough competition and a difficult socio-economic context."

Moreover, the year 2022 was marked by the development of mobile and high-speed fixed and mobile activities in all markets, the Orange subsidiary added.

"This development has been favored by the densification and extension of networks and the launch of innovative offers adapted to the needs of our customers," Sonatel explained.

For the full year, the company's earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization after leases (EBITDAaL) increased to 631.5 billion CFA Francs (US$1.02 billion), a 8.8% increase YoY.

Sonatel subscriber success

The telco's subscriber base for fixed, mobile and Internet services grew by 1.4% to reach 38.8 million in 2022.

Registered users on its mobile money platform, Orange Money, increased by 23.6% to reach 26.4 million, of which 10.7 million were active during the year. However, Orange Money revenue dropped by 8.9% to 132 billion CFA Francs (US$213 million).

Sonatel Group has recorded 10.5% growth in net profit in 2022 despite tough competition and a difficult socio-economic context. (Source: Image by wirestock on Freepik).

"In 2023, we aim to strengthen our performance in terms of both growth and profitability, thanks to an operational efficiency plan. We will pursue our strategy as a multi-service operator by accelerating our growth levers, which are very high speed fixed and mobile, the distribution of content via our Wido platform and the Orange Energy business," Sonatel Group CEO Sékou Dramé said in a statement.

5G & fiber future

The growth of this segment enabled the telco to compensate for the drop in international traffic tariffs which were in line with changes in customer usage.

In response to the company's regulatory commitments in the five countries it operates in, and to improve quality of service in general, Sonatel invested 262 billion CFA francs (US$422.8 million) in capital expenditure in 2022, which was a 22.5% increase on 2021.

"The fiber network has been extended to facilitate household access to high-speed Internet," the company added.

"The customer experience has been greatly improved with incomparable network quality and innovation has not been left behind with the launch in the pilot phase of 5G in Senegal," the telco added.

The investment is evident after the company opened a 5G Lab in Senegal's capital, Dakar in July 2022.

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