Airtel Africa today announced consistently strong results for the half-year ended 30 September 2025, reflecting accelerated growth across its key segments and continued effective execution of its digital-focused strategy. The company saw substantial gains in revenue, profitability, and customer base, with data and mobile money now forming the bedrock of its growth.
Airtel Africa reported revenues of $2,982 million, achieving robust growth of 24.5% in constant currency and 25.8% in reported currency, benefiting from currency appreciation in the second quarter. This growth was supported by strategic tariff adjustments in Nigeria and strong momentum in Francophone Africa.
Key financial metrics include:
- EBITDA increased by 33.2% in reported currency to $1,447 million, with the EBITDA margin expanding to 48.5% (up from 45.8% in the prior period).
- Profit after tax improved to $376 million, a significant increase from $79 million in the prior period. This improvement was aided by a $90 million gain largely from Nigerian naira and Central African franc appreciation.
- Basic EPS jumped to $8.3 cents from $0.8 cents a year ago, primarily driven by improved operating profit and foreign exchange gains.
Airtel’s focus on digital innovation and network expansion is paying dividends, transforming the revenue mix.
- Mobile Services Revenue grew by 23.1% in constant currency, with data revenue growth of 37.0% and voice revenue growing by 13.2%. Crucially, data revenues ($1,161 million) have now surpassed voice as the largest revenue component for the Group.
- The total customer base grew 11.0% to $173.8 million, while data customers showed accelerated growth of 18.4% to $78.1 million.
- Smartphone penetration increased by 3.8% to 46.8%, with data ARPU growing by 16.8% in constant currency, supported by a 45.0% increase in data traffic.
The Airtel Money platform continues to be a major driver of digital adoption and financial inclusion.
- The mobile money customer base accelerated by 20% to $49.8 million.
- Annualised Total Processed Value (TPV) for the quarter surpassed $193 billion, marking a robust 35.9% increase, reflecting enhanced customer engagement and innovation.
- Mobile money revenues grew by 30.2% in constant currency. The company confirmed that preparations for the Airtel Money IPO remain on course for a listing in the first half of 2026.
Airtel continued to invest heavily in its network, rolling out over 2,350 new sites and expanding its fibre network by approximately 4,000 km. Population coverage reached 81.5%, with 98.5% of sites now 4G enabled.
In a vote of confidence, the company raised its capital expenditure guidance for the full year 2026 to between $875 million and $900 million to accelerate its ability to capture market opportunities.
The company also improved its leverage from $2.3 and declared an interim dividend of $2.84 cents per share, an increase of 9.2%.
Commenting on the results, Sunil Taldar, chief executive officer, stated, “The strength of these results is testament to the initiatives that we have been implementing across the business… The increase in smartphone penetration to 46.8% reflects the substantial demand for data services across our markets but also highlights the scale of the opportunity to further develop the digital economy.”