Airtel Africa reports $586m profit after tax from 14 African countries in 2025

Airtel Africa, the leading telecoms company on the continent, has recorded a profit after tax (PAT) of $586 million for the 9 months ending December 2925. The results signal a 136.6% year-on-year growth across 14 markets in Africa.

In the disclosure made available on Friday, the company revealed that a model of customer-centric strategy, innovative designs and increased network investment across its markets continues to fuel a “strong operating momentum.” Compared to the PAT of $248 million a year ago, the latest result underscores the Group’s operational growth. 

Similarly, Airtel Africa's customer base grew by 10% to 179.4 million from 163.1 million in the prior period. Fueled by increased data usage, total internet subscribers have now reached 81.8 million. 

Reacting to the earnings, Sunil Taldar, Airtel Africa’s CEO, noted that the results reflect the strength of the group’s strong operating and financial trends across all markets. He mentioned the deployment of infrastructural investment to enhance coverage and data capacity while also expanding our fibre network. 

“Coupling this investment with innovative partnerships strengthens our customer proposition and positions us to capture the considerable growth opportunity across our markets,” he said.

In terms of investment, Airtel Africa said it rolled out about 2,500 new sites and expanded the fibre network by 4,000 km to 81,500+ km to support customer experience. With this, overall population coverage has reached 81.7%, an 0.6% YoY growth. 

The group recorded revenues of $4.67 billion, which increased by 28.3% in reported currency. The revenues were largely fueled by data revenue, which saw earnings of $1.8 billion. Voice revenues also grew by 17.1% to $1.7 billion, representing the second largest contributor.

Smartphone penetration surged by 48.1%, with data average revenue per user (ARPU) growing by 16.6%. Data usage per customer increased to 8.6GB per month from 6.9GB in the prior period, fueled by network investment and an increase in smartphone adoption.

The telco attributed the performance to an improved operating environment, digitisation, investment and strong underlying fundamentals of the business. 

50 million Mobile money subscribers 

According to the report, Airtel Africa’s mobile money has crossed 50 million subscribers. Its customer base grew by 17.3% from 44.3 million to 52 million customers. 

The group’s annualised total processed value (TPV) for Q3 ’26 (Oct ’25 to Dec ’25) surpassed the $200 billion threshold, with an increase of 36% to over $210bn. Overall, mobile money revenue contributes 21.1% to Airtel Africa’s total revenue during the 9 months ended December 2025.

Also Read: MTN Nigeria edges Airtel and Glo as best mobile internet provider in 2025 – report 

Airtel Nigeria 

In the Nigerian market, Airtel recorded a 52.2% YoY surge in revenue to $1.126 billion, also driven by data earnings of $576 million. The result was also driven by tariff adjustment, the naira’s appreciation and favourable market conditions.

Data usage grew by 26.2% to 10.7 GB per month, with smartphone penetration increasing by 4.6% to 54.1%. Also, smartphone data usage per customer reached 13.4 GB monthly.

The company now has a customer base of 56.2 million, the highest across Airtel’s 14 African markets. 

Meanwhile, the market is still struggling with mobile money operations. With a $6 million revenue in mobile money, the market holds a share of 0.61% across Airtel’s $986 million revenue across 14 markets in Africa.

East Africa 

Mobile money saw a strong growth in East Africa, its biggest market, with a revenue of $735 million. In fact, the market accounts for two-thirds of the group’s mobile money revenue.

Its total customer base has now reached 40.2 million from 35.2 million in the prior period.

In Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia, Airtel’s revenue increased by 23% to $2.2 billion. This was driven by appreciation of the Zambian kwacha and the Ugandan and Tanzanian shillings.

Across the six markets, Airtel Africa now has an 83.7 million subscriber base (+9.5% YoY) and 36.3 million data customers (+15.9% YoY).

Data usage per customer increased to 7.6 GB monthly, up by 25.3%, with smartphone penetration increasing 3.6% to reach 45.2%. Smartphone data usage per customer reached 9.4 GB per month compared to 7.6 GB per month in the prior period.

Also Read: MTN and Airtel lose $7 million in Uganda as social media access is finally restored

Francophone Africa

Airtel Africa saw a revenue of $1.3 billion across the francophone African markets comprising Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Madagascar, Niger, Republic of the Congo and the Seychelles.

According to the group, these markets saw recovery in market trends and benefited from sustained network investment and intensive focus on ‘go-to-market’ initiatives.

Data usage per customer increased to 6.6 GB per month, from 5.3 GB. Smartphone penetration increased by  3.9% to reach 45.9%, while smartphone data usage per customer reached 7.8 GB per month compared to 6.4 GB per month a year ago.

Mobile money revenue grew by 36.4% to reach $245 million during the period, while the customer base now stood at 9.6 million.

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