For the half-year period ended 30th September 2025 (HY 2026), Airtel Africa has posted USD 2.982 billion in revenue, up 25.8% relative to HY 2025, in reported currency terms. The bulk of the revenue was attributed to data revenue, which brought in USD 1.161 billion, followed by voice revenue at USD 1.1 billion.
Top-line expenses totaled USD 1.5 billion, with Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization (EBITDA) of USD 1.45 billion. The EBITDA margin for the period was 48.5%, up 2.7 percentage points compared to HY 2025.
Regional revenue analysis for the period under review showed that East Africa revenue recorded 22.9% growth relative to HY 2025 on account of appreciation in the Ugandan shilling. Total finance costs for the period under review were USD 304 million from USD 528 million in HY 2025, on the back of, among other factors, the shift of foreign currency-denominated debt to local currency debt carrying an average higher interest rate.
Profit After Tax for the half-year period was USD 376 million, up 4.8X from HY 2024, and the Board of Directors declared an interim dividend of 2.84 cents per share to be paid on 30th September 2025 to shareholders on record as of the close of business, 7th November 2025.
Data Underpinned Airtel Africa HY 26 Revenue
In the operating period, data customers grew at the highest rate across all segments, expanding by 18.4% to 78.1 million customers. This growth was reflected in and corroborated by the data revenue posted during the period, which totaled USD 1.161 billion, accounting for 40% of gross revenues. The total customer base grew by 17.2 million to 173.8 million, and on aggregate, the Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) was USD 2.9, up from USD 2.6 in the equivalent period in the previous year.
Airtel Africa Share BuyBack Program Uptake at 80%
Airtel Africa’s second share buyback program targeting USD 55 million was announced on 14th May 2025, and as of 30 September 2025, USD 34.7 million had been returned to shareholders, and the company plans to complete the outstanding USD 20.3 million by the end of March 2036. The first tranche of the buyback program was completed on April 24, 2025, and returned to shareholders USD 46.3 million in respect of 26.3 million shares. The company entered into an arrangement with Barclays Capital Securities Limited on 22nd September 2025 to facilitate the program.
Mobile Money TPV Nears USD 100B
The mobile money customer base witnessed a 20.0% growth to 49.8 million customers, with the Total Processed Value (TPV) reaching USD 88.8 billion (average of USD 318 TPV per customer), up by USD 25 billion from HY 24. The total revenue earned from mobile money was USD 623 million, with the EBITDA at USD 323 million, resulting to an EBITDA margin of 51.7%. East Africa accounted for the bulk of mobile money revenue at USD 466 million or 75% of the total, with the customer base reaching 39 million from 33 million in HY 2025.
Outlook and Partnerships
Airtel Africa entered into an agreement with SpaceX on 5th May 2025 for the provision of high-speed Starlink services to its customers in Africa. SpaceX has received licenses in 9 out of 14 (64%+ of) Airtel Africa markets. Airtel Africa also entered into an arrangement with Vodacom for network infrastructure sharing in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Tanzania, and Mozambique. In Nigeria, Airtel Africa is in the process of migrating its customers to the High Availability NIMC Verification Service (HA-NVS) following a directive from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).
Also Read: Meta, Safaricom Accelerate Kenya’s Digital Transformation With 9th Submarine Cable
