Airtel Africa Q1 revenue rises 31% as customer growth accelerates

Airtel Africa Plc (LON:AAF) has announced its results for quarter ended 30 June 2026

Strong foundations enabling profitable growth and investment in future growth opportunities

Operating highlights

·  Through a sustained focus on our strategy, we delivered a strong operating performance with accelerating customer base growth across all segments. The total customer base increased to 189 million, growing by 11.6% with data customers increasing by 15.5% to 87.3 million. Data usage per customer continued its upward trajectory, rising from 7.8 GB to 10.6 GB per month over the past year, translating into a 56.3% increase in data traffic across the network, underpinning a 10.3% growth in constant currency[1] data ARPU. Smartphone penetration was the key enabler of this increased traffic as penetration increased to 51.0% as digital adoption of our services continues.

·  Annualised total processed value (TPV) on our Airtel Money platform increased by 51.5% to over $245bn in reported currency, supported by continued growth in our customer base to 56.5 million, up by 23.3%, and increased engagement. Our focus on deepening financial inclusion through increased customer adoption, broader use cases and a stronger digital payments ecosystem enabled higher usage and facilitated continued ARPU growth, reinforcing Airtel Money’s growing role as a trusted digital financial services provider.

Financial performance

·  Revenue in reported currency grew by 31.0%, to $1,853m, reflecting constant currency growth of 21.1% and macroeconomic tailwinds supporting currency appreciation. All segments continued to see double-digit constant currency revenue growth, with mobile services revenue growing by 19.1%, and mobile money growing by 25.8%. Across mobile services, voice continued to see strong constant currency growth of 11.2% and data revenue grew by 27.2%. In East Africa and Francophone Africa, constant currency revenues grew by 17.8% and 18.0% respectively, while Nigerian revenues grew by 29.8%, fully reflecting the lapping effect of the tariff adjustments which were implemented in Q4’25.

·   Constant currency EBITDA increased by 24.4%, with reported currency EBITDA of $928m growing by 36.6%. The Q1’27 EBITDA margin of 50.1%, an increase of 206bps year-on-year, continues to reflect the success of our ongoing cost optimisation programme, despite the recent energy cost inflation arising from geopolitical developments.  

·   Profit after tax of $198m improved from $156m in the prior period. Higher profit after tax in the current period was driven by higher operating profit partially offset by derivative and foreign exchange losses of $6m in the current period compared to $22m derivative and foreign exchange gains in the prior period. Furthermore, Profit after tax was impacted by the recognition of an exceptional finance cost of $37m following an in-principle settlement reached during the quarter in respect of a commercial dispute in one of the Group’s subsidiaries.

·    Basic EPS of 4.4 cents compares to 3.4 cents in the prior period, predominantly reflecting the increase in operating profits. EPS before exceptional items increased from 3.4 cents to 5.4 cents.

Capital allocation

·   Accelerated network investments drove capex of $389m, up from $121m in the prior period. Supported by an elevated pace of deployment, we added more than 920 sites during the quarter, our highest first-quarter site rollout, while further expanding our fibre network to 82,100 km. This accelerated investment programme is designed to strengthen network quality, capacity and coverage, enabling us to capture future growth opportunities and enhance customer experience.

·   Leverage has improved from 2.2x to 1.7x, with lease-adjusted leverage also improving to 0.5x from 0.9x in the prior period, primarily driven by the improvement in EBITDA.

·   During the period, the Board approved a share buyback programme to repurchase up to 1% of its issued share capital. As of 30 June 2026, the company had purchased approximately 10.2 million shares for a total consideration of $46.6m.

Sunil Taldar, chief executive officer, on the trading update:

“We have started this year with another pleasing performance. Our continued focus on the customer experience translated into accelerating customer base growth across all business segments. As we continue to digitise our business, we are streamlining customer journeys, increasing digital adoption and harnessing data and AI to improve service delivery and support a strong, sustainable growth profile. Smartphone penetration reached 51.0%, an increase of 5.2 percentage points over the last year, reflecting continued progress in digital adoption across our markets. Supported by sustained investment in our network, this has driven a 56.3% increase in data traffic as customers embrace digital solutions across our markets.

Airtel Money continues to expand financial inclusion across our markets and unlock new growth vectors. Annualised TPV in excess of $245bn increased 51.5% reflecting the strength of engagement across the ecosystem, as the suite of product continues to expand and digital adoption underpins the customer experience. As we enter the next phase of our growth journey, we are pleased to confirm London as our preferred listing venue for Airtel Money in 2026. We believe a London listing will provide access to a broad international investor base and support our ambition to unlock the long-term value of one of Africa’s leading fintech platforms.

We continue to see our cost efficiency programme supporting EBITDA margin resilience, with EBITDA margins of 50.1% in the quarter. Higher energy costs arising from recent geopolitical developments are expected to increase inflationary pressures and weigh on EBITDA margins in the near term, however, we will continue to focus on offsetting some of this impact over the year.

Our accelerated investment programme remains on track, with investment brought forward into Q1 as we proactively invest ahead of demand to sustain our strong operating momentum and capture the growth opportunities presented by Africa’s ongoing digital transformation.”