The active money base of Bharti Airtel grew to 7 million and is now carrying out transactions worth more than $1 billion every month, according to the group’s Q1 2016 results.

In the three months to the end of June, total transactions grew to $3.3 billion, an increase of 73 per cent year-on-year.

The performance drew comment from Christian de Faria, MD and CEO of Airtel Africa, who was “particularly delighted” by the performance.

However, he did not spell out whether the Airtel Money figures included money users from Bharti Airtel’s home market in India, as well as the African countries where it has launched such services. Also the company also does not define what is an “active” user, a definition that can boost or decrease an operator’s money base.

The Africa chief also talked up a number of other metrics from the Q1 results, including a 13 per cent increase in the Airtel Africa mobile customer base to 78.3 million, and a fall in churn from 7 per cent to 5.4 per cent.

However, one set of figures disappointed: revenue from Africa fell by more than 11 per cent to INR62 billion ($968 million). In constant currency terms, Africa did register a growth but of only one per cent. Profit before tax, finance charges and exceptional items fell to INR761 million from INR2.78 billion a year earlier.