Airtel Africa Customer Base Hits 179.4m as Revenues Jump 28.3% to $4.7bn

Airtel Africa’s total customer base increased by 10% to 179.4 million for the period ended December 31, 2025, supported by a customer-centric strategy that continues to underpin strong operating momentum, with increased network investment, digitisation, and innovative new partnerships, demonstrating tangible progress in delivering our strategic priorities.

The Group’s revenues of $4,667m increased by 24.6% in constant currency and 28.3% in reported currency as currency appreciation supported the strong underlying fundamentals of the business. The strong execution of our strategy delivered constant-currency revenue growth of 24.7% in Q3’26, further supported by currency appreciation, resulting in 32.9% reported currency revenue growth.

The profit after tax of $586m improved from $248m in the prior period. Higher profit after tax in the current period was driven by higher operating profit and derivative and foreign exchange gains of $99m, as compared to $153m derivative and foreign exchange losses in the prior period.

Mobile services revenue grew by 23.3% in constant currency. Data revenues, the largest contributor to group revenues, increased 36.5% with voice revenues growing by 13.5%. Mobile money revenues continue to benefit from the strong operating momentum to deliver 29.4% growth in constant currency.

East Africa revenue grew by 18.2% in reported currency to $1,615m and by 14.4% in constant currency. Higher reported currency revenue growth as compared to constant currency was primarily due to appreciation in the Zambian kwacha, Ugandan and Tanzanian shilling. The constant currency growth was made up of voice revenue growth of 13.7% and data revenue growth of 18.0%.

Voice revenue growth was supported by customer base growth of 9.5% and voice ARPU growth of 3.1%. The customer base growth was largely driven by the expansion of both increased network coverage and the increasing scale of the distribution network.

Data customer base growth of 15.9% and data usage growth of 48.1% was the primary drivers of the data revenue growth during the period. The company continues to invest in the network and expand our 4G and 5G networks in the region. Over 2,000 sites are 5G-enabled across four key markets. Data usage per customer increased to 7.6 GB per customer per month, up by 25.3%, with smartphone penetration increasing 3.6% to reach 45.2%. Smartphone data usage per customer reached 9.4 GB per month compared to 7.6 GB per month in the prior period.

Speaking on the results, Airtel Africa Group Chief Executive Officer Sunil Tadar said, “These results highlight the strength of our strategy, with strong operating and financial trends across the business. During the quarter, we accelerated investment to enhance coverage and data capacity while also expanding our fibre network. Coupling this investment with innovative partnerships strengthens our customer proposition and positions us to capture the considerable growth opportunity across our markets. Digitisation, technology innovation, and embedding AI in our processes will also optimise the customer experience with increased digital offerings and closer integration of GSM and Airtel Money services, allowing us to unlock the strong demand across our markets. Smartphone adoption continues to increase with a penetration of 48.1%, and we are seeing solid progress in the development of our home broadband business, reflecting the need for reliable, high-speed connectivity across our markets.

Our push to enhance financial inclusion across the continent continues to gain momentum with our Mobile Money customer base expanding to 52 million, surpassing the 50 million milestone.  Annualised total processed value of over $210bn in Q3’26 underscores the depth of our merchants, agents, and partner ecosystem, and remains a key player in driving improved access to financial services across Africa. We remain on track for the listing of Airtel Money in the first half of 2026.

Disciplined execution on cost efficiency, alongside accelerating revenue growth, has enabled another sequential improvement in our quarterly EBITDA margin to 49.6%, underpinning constant currency EBITDA growth of 31%, and we remain focused on driving further incremental margin improvements. Our strategic priorities remain clear: to keep investing in best-in-class connectivity, accelerate financial inclusion through our mobile money platform, and deliver a great customer experience. These results reinforce our confidence in the long-term potential of our markets and our ability to create value for all our stakeholders.”

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