Airtel Africa Profit Rises 27% to $198 Million as Data Demand Accelerates

Airtel Africa Plc reported a 27 percent increase in profit after tax to $198 million for the quarter ended June 30, 2026, driven by rising data consumption, customer growth and improved earnings across its telecommunications and mobile-money businesses.

Profit increased from $156 million in the corresponding period of 2025 despite higher finance costs and a $37 million exceptional charge connected to an in-principle settlement of a commercial dispute involving one of the group’s subsidiaries.

Revenue rose by 31 percent to $1.85 billion from $1.42 billion, supported by stronger operating performance and the appreciation of currencies in several of Airtel Africa’s markets. On a constant-currency basis, revenue grew by 21.1 percent.

Data revenue increased by 36.5 percent to $750 million, while voice revenue advanced by 20.1 percent to $640 million. Mobile-money revenue grew by 38.9 percent to $404 million.

The company’s total customer base expanded by 11.6 percent to 189 million with data customers increasing by 15.5 percent to 87.3 million.

Average monthly data consumption per customer climbed to 10.6 gigabytes from 7.8 gigabytes a year earlier. The increase, combined with a larger data customer base, lifted total traffic across Airtel Africa’s network by 56.3 percent.

Smartphone penetration increased by 5.2 percentage points to 51 percent, indicating that more subscribers are migrating to internet-enabled devices and consuming higher-value digital services.

The performance was also supported by Nigeria, where revenue grew by 50.4 percent in reported currency and 29.8 percent in constant currency.

The increase reflected the full-quarter impact of tariff adjustments introduced during the fourth quarter of the previous financial year.

Revenue from East Africa rose by 27.6 percent in reported currency, while Francophone Africa recorded growth of 19.7 percent.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation increased by 36.6 percent to $928 million from $679 million.

The EBITDA margin improved by 206 basis points to 50.1 percent as revenue growth and cost-efficiency measures offset part of the increase in energy expenses.

Operating profit advanced by 40.7 percent to $627 million, demonstrating that Airtel Africa’s core earnings grew faster than revenue during the quarter.

However, total finance costs climbed by 56 percent to $269 million from $173 million. Apart from the $37 million exceptional charge, the company recorded derivative and foreign-exchange losses of $6 million, compared with gains of $22 million in the previous year.

Finance costs excluding the exceptional settlement increased to $232 million from $173 million, partly because accelerated site deployment raised interest expenses on lease liabilities.

Profit before tax consequently rose by 32 percent to $360 million, while the tax charge increased by 38.8 percent to $162 million.

Airtel Africa reported an effective tax rate of 40.9 percent, above its weighted average statutory corporate tax rate of approximately 32 percent.

Basic earnings per share increased by 27.3 percent to 4.4 cents. Excluding exceptional items, earnings per share climbed by 57 percent to 5.4 cents.

Airtel Africa increased capital expenditure by 221.5 percent to $389 million as it accelerated investments in network capacity and coverage.

The company deployed more than 920 sites during the quarter and extended its fibre network to 82,100 kilometres.

The higher investment reduced operating free cash flow by 3.5 percent to $539 million despite a 38.3 percent increase in cash generated from operations to $786 million.

The group’s leverage improved to 1.7 times from 2.2 times, supported by stronger EBITDA, although net debt increased to $5.74 billion from $5.49 billion.

Airtel Money customers rose by 23.3 percent to 56.5 million, while annualised transaction value increased by 51.5 percent to more than $245 billion.

Airtel Africa also confirmed London as its preferred venue for the planned listing of the mobile-money business in 2026.