Airtel’s Managing Director, Mr Soumendra Sahu has confirmed a plan to double Airtel’s investment in data, which will be a key priority this year and beyond, as the telco maintains an aggressive marketing agenda in the data segment.

The telco’s data revenue and value-added services grew significantly in the 12 months to December 2024, reaching UGX 961 billion compared to UGX  776 billion in 2023.

The increase was primarily driven by a rise in data usage, with more clients accessing data services.

While addressing journalists on Friday March 21st in Kampala, Mr Soumendra said, “Data is a future as a category and almost 80-90% of all our investments will be [centred] around data and how to grow it. That is the reason smartphone penetration is likely to grow in the next three to five years,” noting that the exponential growth of data services is partly hinged on a generation of Gen Zs, who talk less, but spend more on internet access. 

UCC data shows that mobile phone subscribers in Ugandans are now spending an average of UGX 13,369 per month, which is more than what they spend on any other telecommunication services.     

In 2024, Airtel rolled out 310 sites, 48% of which were 5G, and 516kms of fibre network across the country as part of the continuous investment. 

The telco is actively investing in Voice Over LTE (VOLTE), an innovation that allows affordable, high-quality voice calls off an existing data bundle or plan. 

“We have invested technical and financial resources in this innovation that allows customers to make calls over the internet, it is cheap and improves their service experience,” he said.

Last year, Airtel’s profit after tax grew 6.7% to UGX 316.7 billion and during last week’s Annual General Meeting, the telco’s board recommended a final dividend of UGX 2.5 per share for the year ended 31 December 2024, resulting in a full year total dividend payout of UGX 7.88 per share.