Airtel Africa delivered a year of standout growth in the financial year ended March 2026, supported by strong customer additions, rising data usage, disciplined cost management and continued expansion of its mobile money platform.
The company’s customer base grew by 10.5% to 183.5 million, marking its highest net additions to date. Data customers increased by 14.8% to 84.2 million, while smartphone penetration rose by 4.7 percentage points to 49.5%. Data usage per customer also climbed to 8.9GB per month, up from 7.0GB in the previous year, helping drive 16.2% constant-currency growth in data ARPU.
Revenue for the year rose 29.5% in reported currency to $6.42 billion, while constant-currency revenue increased by 24.0%. Growth was particularly strong in Nigeria, where constant-currency revenue rose by 47.5%, supported by tariff adjustments and improved macroeconomic conditions. Francophone Africa recorded constant-currency growth of 17.1%.
Airtel Money also maintained strong momentum, with its customer base expanding by 21.3% to 54.1 million. Annualised total processed value reached more than $215 billion in reported currency in the fourth quarter, up 49%, reflecting deeper customer engagement and broader use cases across the platform.
Underlying EBITDA rose 37.2% in reported currency to $3.16 billion, while the underlying EBITDA margin improved to 49.3% for the year. In the fourth quarter, the margin reached an all-time high of 50.3%, compared with 47.3% in the same period last year. Profit after tax increased sharply to $813 million from $328 million, supported by higher operating profit and foreign exchange and derivative gains.
Chief executive officer Sunil Taldar said the results reflected attractive industry fundamentals and the success of Airtel Africa’s strategy across its markets. He noted that adoption of digital technologies and AI had helped improve customer experience, support network optimisation, streamline onboarding and accelerate the rollout of the myAirtel app.
The company increased capital expenditure by 31.9% to $884 million during the year, rolling out more than 3,250 new sites and expanding its fibre network by about 3,200 kilometres to 81,900 kilometres. Airtel Africa said capex guidance for FY27 is approximately $1.1 billion, reflecting accelerated investment in coverage, capacity, home broadband and data centres.
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, a 9.2% increase from the previous year. The company also reported improved leverage, which fell to 1.8x from 2.3x.
Taldar said Airtel Africa remained committed to the Airtel Money IPO, though recent geopolitical developments had affected the expected timing. The company now intends to undertake the listing in the second half of 2026, subject to market conditions.