Airtel Africa plc announced its results for the half-year ended September 30, 2025, highlighting consistently strong performance that reflects sustained customer demand and the continued effective execution of its customer-centric strategy.
The success of Airtel’s strategy, which centres on superior customer experience and digital offerings, is evident in the accelerating growth across all segments, especially being driven by data and fintech.
Speaking about the half-year performance, Sunil Taldar, the Chief Executive Officer, said;
“Our strategy has been focused 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 are pleased to see the growing adoption of the 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,” he added.
He noted that the increase in smartphone penetration to 46.8% not only reflects the substantial demand for data services across markets but also highlights the scale of the opportunity to further develop the digital economy.
A report released by the Group for the said period indicates that the accelerating growth in customer base across segments underscores the success of Airtel Africa’s strategy, which centres on the customer experience, with the Airtel Spam alert highlighting their approach to innovation, targeted capex maximising revenue generation and the expansion of digital offerings driving the myAirtel app uptake.
The report also indicates that the Group’s total customer base of 173.8 million increased by 11.0%, with data customers of 78.1 million showing accelerated growth of 18.4%.
Besides growth in customer base, the company also registered an increase in Smartphone penetration from 3.8% to 46.8%, with data Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) growing by 16.8% in constant currency, primarily reflecting the 45.0% increase in data traffic across the network.
Fintech as a Key Growth Driver
According to the report, 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.
Following this growth, annualised Total Processed Value (TPV) for Q2’26 surpassed $193Bn, representing 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.
Major Investments
This commendable performance reaffirms Airtel Africa’s commitment to delivering a great customer experience, which is supported by ongoing investment in network and infrastructure, with the rollout of over 2,350 new sites to over 38,300 sites and an expansion of the fibre network from approximately 4,000 KMs to over 81,000 KMs.
This investment, the report asserts, 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.
Impressive Financial Performance
The report also indicates that 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 Airtel Africa’s business 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 have 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.
On the other hand, Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortisation (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 the company’s cost efficiency programme. As such, Q2’26 EBITDA margins reached 49.0%, up from 46.4% in the prior year.
Profits After Tax
Airtel Africa’s impressive financial performance is further highlighted by an increase in profit after tax of $376m from $79m in the prior period. The report notes that the prior period was significantly impacted by derivative and foreign exchange losses, primarily in Nigeria, while the current period benefited 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).
Growth in Share Value
Basic Earnings Per Share (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.
Accelerating Investment and De-risking Debt
The Group is actively managing its balance sheet to support accelerated growth and mitigate risk through:
Increased Capex: Full-year FY’26 capital expenditure guidance has been raised to between $875m and $900m, reflecting a decision to accelerate investment and “capture the full potential across our markets.”
Debt Localisation: The program to reduce foreign currency debt exposure is nearly complete, with around 95% of OpCo debt now in local currency, up from 89% a year ago. This significantly de-risks the balance sheet from foreign exchange volatility.
Shareholder Returns: Leverage improved from 2.3x to 2.1x, and the Board declared an interim dividend of 2.84 cents per share, an increase of 9.2%, in line with its progressive dividend policy.
In a nutshell, Airtel Africa’s H1 FY26 results underscore a business successfully transitioning to a high-growth digital platform model.
By doubling down on network quality, digital services (MyAirtel app adoption), and the Airtel Money fintech ecosystem, the company is strategically positioned to capitalise on Africa’s immense opportunities for digital and financial inclusion.