Airtel Africa Posts Strong Growth as Revenue Hits $6.4bn

Airtel Africa has reported a strong financial and operational performance for the year ended March 31, 2026, driven by rising customer growth, increased data usage and expanding mobile money services across its 14 African markets.

The telecommunications and mobile money provider recorded a 29.5 per cent increase in reported revenue to $6.415 billion from $4.955 billion in the previous year, while constant currency revenue growth stood at 24 per cent.

The company also posted a 45.1 per cent rise in operating profit to $2.115 billion, with profit after tax climbing sharply to $813 million from $328 million recorded in the prior year.

Basic earnings per share rose to 18.6 cents from 6.0 cents, reflecting stronger operating profit and foreign exchange gains during the period.

Airtel Africa said its customer base increased by 10.5 per cent to 183.5 million subscribers, representing its highest-ever net customer additions. Data customers rose by 14.8 per cent to 84.2 million, supported by an increase in smartphone penetration to 49.5 per cent.

The company noted that monthly data usage per customer increased to 8.9GB from 7.0GB recorded in the previous year, helping drive a 35.2 per cent growth in data revenue in constant currency terms.

Mobile money services also recorded significant expansion during the year, with Airtel Money customers growing by 21.3 per cent to 54.1 million users. Annualised total processed value increased by 49 per cent to more than $215 billion in the fourth quarter of 2026.

Underlying EBITDA grew by 37.2 per cent in reported currency to $3.162 billion, while EBITDA margins improved to 49.3 per cent, reaching a record 50.3 per cent in the fourth quarter.

As part of its infrastructure expansion strategy, Airtel Africa increased capital expenditure by 31.9 per cent to $884 million. The company rolled out more than 3,250 new network sites and expanded its fibre network by about 3,200 kilometres to 81,900 kilometres.

The company said it plans to increase capital expenditure to approximately $1.1 billion in the 2027 financial year to further expand coverage, strengthen capacity and invest in home broadband and data centres.

Chief Executive Officer of Airtel Africa, Sunil Taldar, described the performance as a reflection of strong industry fundamentals and effective execution of the company’s digital growth strategy.

According to him, the adoption of artificial intelligence and digital technologies helped improve customer experience, streamline onboarding processes and accelerate deployment of the myAirtel app across its markets.

“This year delivered a very strong performance across both operating and financial metrics, reflecting the attractive industry fundamentals and structural growth drivers across our footprint. This backdrop, and the continued success of our strategy contributed to our highest level of customer additions, revenue and EBITDA growth. Adoption of new digital technologies and AI has been pivotal in unlocking growth opportunities and driving efficiencies, with wide ranging rollouts enhancing customer experience through site level network optimisation, streamlined onboarding and accelerating the rollout of myAirtel app, a single-touchpoint customer interface designed to streamline service adoption and deliver a more intuitive digital journey. This focused strategy has contributed to a further 22% increase in smartphone customers to 91 million, driving an almost 50% increase in data traffic and, together with another strong Airtel Money performance, supported a step-up in constant currency revenue growth to 24.0%,” he submitted.

Taldar also disclosed that the planned Airtel Money initial public offering had been delayed due to market conditions following recent geopolitical developments, but expressed confidence that the IPO would proceed in the second half of 2026 when market conditions improve.

He noted, “Airtel Money has made strong progress across digital adoption, ecosystem expansion and product innovation this year. Customer engagement continues to deepen, with app transacting customers up 74% and annualised TPV of over $215bn in Q4’26. Market conditions following recent geopolitical developments have affected the anticipated timing of the Airtel Money IPO. We have made good progress and remain committed to the listing as market conditions allow, with the intention of undertaking the IPO in the second half of 2026.”

The Board recommended a final dividend of 4.26 cents per share, bringing the total dividend for the year to 7.1 cents per share, representing a 9.2 per cent increase over the previous year.