Airtel Africa has kicked off its new financial year with strong momentum, delivering a strong operating and financial performance for quarter one (Q1) driven by accelerating customer growth, rapid data adoption and a booming mobile money ecosystem.

The financial report, released yesterday, showed that the total customer base expanded by 11.6 per cent to 189 million. Active data subscribers rose 15.5 per cent to 87.3 million, driving a 56.3 per cent spike in network data traffic.
Airtel Money processed an annualised transaction value (TPV) of over $245 billion, a 51.5 per cent year-on-year.

Total revenue grew 31 per cent in reported currency (21.1 per cent in constant currency) to $1.853 billion.
Profitability scaled significantly, with EBITDA rising 36.6 per cent to $928 million, delivering an expanded EBITDA margin of 50.1 per cent (up 206 basis points).

The group’s strategic focus on network coverage and digital inclusion continues to yield solid results. Smartphone penetration reached 51 per cent, helping average monthly data usage per customer jump from 7.8 GB to 10.6 GB.

Nigeria’s revenues expanded by 29.8 per cent in constant currency, benefitting from tariff adjustments implemented in Q4 2025.

East Africa and Francophone Africa delivered double-digit revenue growth of 17.8 per cent and 18 per cent respectively.

For Airtel Money, customer adoption climbed 23.3 per cent to 56.5 million, consolidating Airtel’s position as a cornerstone of digital financial inclusion across Africa.

In terms of bottom-line growth and capital discipline, profit after tax (PAT) for the quarter rose to $198 million (up from $156 million in Q1), supported by robust top-line growth and disciplined cost optimisation programmes, which effectively mitigated recent energy inflation.

Basic EPS rose to 4.4 cents, while EPS before exceptional items surged to 5.4 cents.

The company also significantly stepped up its capital deployment to power future demand. Capex rose to $389 million, supporting a record first-quarter rollout of over 920 new sites and expanding the Group’s fibre network to 82,100 km.

Despite this heavy investment, Airtel Africa strengthened its balance sheet—improving net leverage to 1.7x (and lease-adjusted leverage down to 0.5x). Demonstrating continued commitment to shareholder returns, the company repurchased 10.2 million shares ($46.6 million) under its active share buyback program as of June 30, 2026.

Chief Executive Officer, Airtel Africa, Sunil Taldar, said: “We have started this year with another pleasing performance. Our continued focus on the customer experience translated into accelerating customer base growth across all business segments.

“As we continue to digitise our business, we are streamlining customer journeys, increasing digital adoption and harnessing data and AI to improve service delivery and support a strong, sustainable growth profile. Smartphone penetration reached 51 per cent, an increase of 5.2 percentage points over the last year, reflecting continued progress in digital adoption across our markets. Supported by sustained investment in our network, this has driven a 56.3 per cent increase in data traffic as customers embrace digital solutions across our markets.”