Airtel Africa Plc has finally surmounted currency devaluation headwinds as the telecommunication giant posted record profit buoyed by tariff adjustments in Nigeria and continued strong growth momentum in Francophone Africa.
The results for the half year ended 30 September 2025 showed the company’s profit after tax (PAT) surged 375.53 percent to $376 million from $79 million the previous year; bottom line growth was largely supported by exceptional gains on the back of currency appreciation in Nigeria and Central Africa.
Revenue increased by 24.5 percent in constant currency and 25.8% in reported currency to $2.98 billion from $2.37 billion the previous year.
Across the Group, mobile services revenue grew by 23.1 percent in constant currency, driven by voice revenue growth of 13.2 percent and data revenue growth of 37.0 percent.
Data revenues of $1.16 billion 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 percent growth in constant currency.
Airtel Africa’s total customer base rose by 11.12 percent to 178.10 million as at half year ended September 2025, which underscores the success of the telco giant’s strategy which centres on the customer experience with the Airtel Spam alert.
Smartphone penetration increased another 3.8 percent to 46.8 percent, with data average revenue per user (ARPU) growing by 16.8 percent in constant currency, primarily reflecting the 45.0 percent increase in data traffic across the network.
The company cost control policies have yielded fruit as it underpinned cost efficiency. For instance, Earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) grew by 33.2 percent in reported currency to $1.44 billion with EBITDA margins expanding further to 48.5 percent from 45.8 percent the previous year.
The company has continued with its debt localisation programme aimed at reducing foreign currency debt exposure with around 95 percent of its OpCo debt (excl. lease liabilities) now in local currency, up from 89 percent a year ago.
“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,” said Sunil Taldar, chief executive officer of Airtel Africa.
“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,” said Talder.
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