Airtel Africa reports 25.8% revenue growth and higher interim dividend

Airtel Africa plc (LON:AAF) has announced its results for half year ended 30 September 2025.

Consistently strong results reflecting sustained demand and continued execution of our strategy

Operating highlights

·    The accelerating growth in our customer base across all segments underscores the success of our strategy which centres on the customer experience with the Airtel Spam alert highlighting our approach to innovation, targeted capex maximising revenue generation and the expansion of digital offerings driving myAirtel app uptake. Our total customer base of 173.8 million increased 11.0%, with data customers of 78.1 million showing accelerated growth of 18.4%. Smartphone penetration increased another 3.8% to 46.8%, with data ARPU’s growing by 16.8% in constant currency^[1] primarily reflecting the 45.0% increase in data traffic across the network.

·    Airtel Money is driving digital adoption and strengthening the ecosystem to advance financial inclusion. This is also evident in the acceleration in customer growth to 20%, bringing the total customer base to 49.8 million. Annualised total processed value^[2] (TPV) for Q2’26 surpassed $193bn – a 35.9% increase – reflecting both the expanding customer base and a strong focus on enhancing engagement through ongoing innovation. These efforts contributed to an 11% increase in constant currency ARPU.

·    Our commitment to delivering a great customer experience is supported by ongoing investment in our network with the rollout of over 2,350 new sites to over 38,300 sites and an expansion of our fibre network by approx. 4,000 kms to over 81,000 kms. This investment continues to drive increased data capacity across the region as overall population coverage reached 81.5% – an increase of 0.7% from a year ago, with 98.5% of sites being 4G enabled.

Financial performance

·    Revenues of $2,982m saw strong growth of 24.5% in constant currency and 25.8% in reported currency as currency appreciation benefitted reported currency performance. Currency appreciation in Q2’26 has seen reported currency revenue growth of 29.1% versus 24.2% growth in constant currency. The constant currency revenue growth reflects the consistent execution of our strategy, supported by tariff adjustments in Nigeria and continued strong growth momentum in Francophone Africa. 

·    Across the Group, mobile services revenue grew by 23.1% in constant currency, driven by voice revenue growth of 13.2% and data revenue growth of 37.0%. Data revenues of $1,161m has now surpassed voice as the biggest component of revenue for the Group. Mobile money revenues continue to benefit from its increased scale and higher levels of engagement to deliver a 30.2% growth in constant currency.

·    EBITDA grew by 33.2% in reported currency to $1,447m with EBITDA margins expanding further to 48.5% from 45.8% in the prior period driven by continued operating momentum and sustained benefits from our cost efficiency programme. Q2’26 EBITDA margins reached 49.0%, up from 46.4% in the prior year.

·    Profit after tax of $376m improved from $79m in the prior period. The prior period was significantly impacted by derivative and foreign exchange losses, primarily in Nigeria, while the current period benefitted from a $90m gain largely arising from Nigerian naira appreciation during the current quarter (Q2’26) and the Central African franc (CFA) appreciation during the previous quarter (Q1’26).

·    Basic EPS of 8.3 cents compares to 0.8 cents in the prior period, predominantly reflecting the growth in operating profit and derivative and foreign exchange gains in the current period compared to losses in the prior period. EPS before exceptional items increased from 4.9 cents in the prior period to 8.3 cents, largely reflecting the increased operating profits and derivative and foreign exchange gains in the current period.

Capital allocation

·    Capex of $318m was in-line with the prior period. Capex guidance for FY’26 has been increased to between $875m and $900m as we look to accelerate our ability to capitalise on the significant opportunity across our markets.

·    We continued with our debt localisation programme aimed at reducing our foreign currency debt exposure with around 95% of our OpCo debt (excl. lease liabilities) now in local currency, up from 89% a year ago.

·    Leverage has improved from 2.3x to 2.1x, with lease-adjusted leverage also improving to 0.8x from 1.0x a year ago, primarily driven by the improvement in EBITDA.

·    The Board has declared an interim dividend of 2.84 cents per share, an increase of 9.2% in line with our progressive dividend policy. The $100m share buy-back programme remains on track to complete on or before 31 March 2026.    

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

“Our strategy has been focussed on providing a superior customer experience and the strength of these results is testament to the initiatives that we have been implementing across the business. Digital innovation is a core focus, and we’re pleased to see the growing adoption of MyAirtel app as we seek to deepen customer engagement and simplify the customer journey. Furthermore, our network continues to scale as we build additional capacity to facilitate the rise in both digital and financial inclusion. 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.

Airtel Money continues to gain momentum, with our customer base nearing 50 million and annualised total processed value approaching $200bn, up over 35% year-on-year. The acceleration in customer growth and continued growth in engagement on the platform reflects our success in driving digital adoption and innovation to enhance the ecosystem. The preparation for the IPO remains on course for a listing in the first half of 2026.

The strength of our revenue performance – up 24.5% in constant currency – and further cost efficiency initiatives has continued to support a further increase in EBITDA margins to 49% in Q2’26, and we’ll continue to focus on further incremental margin improvements, subject to macroeconomic stability. This strong performance gives us the confidence to increase our capex guidance for this financial year to between $875m and $900m, as we accelerate our investments to capture the full potential across our markets and deliver long-term value for all stakeholders.”