Airtel Africa’s nine-month profit more than doubles as data revenue lifts turnover

Wireless operator Airtel Africa more than doubled its post-tax profit for the nine months to December 2025 to $586 million in reported currency on the back of a sizeable increase in data revenue, according to its unaudited earnings report out on Friday.

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The mobile service provider, which operates in fourteen countries across sub-Saharan Africa, expanded turnover by 28.3 per cent to $4.7 billion, with all income sources including voice revenue, data revenue and listing revenue recording growth.

The fairly remarkable revenue performance was driven by currency appreciation in key markets, particularly Nigerian naira, Zambian kwacha, Ugandan and Tanzanian shilling and West African CFA franc.

Airtel Africa, based in the UK, is quoted in London, and has a secondary listing in Nigeria, its largest market.

“Our push to enhance financial inclusion across the continent continues to gain momentum with our Mobile Money customer base expanding to 52 million, surpassing the 50 million milestone,” CEO Sunil Taldar said in a separate statement.

“Annualised total processed value of over $210bn in Q3’26 underscores the depth of our merchants, agents and partner ecosystem, and remains a key player in driving improved access to financial services across Africa. We remain on track for the listing of Airtel Money in the first half of 2026,” he added.

Airtel Africa’s mobile money business is backed by Mastercard, Qatar Investment Authority and US-based private equity firm TPG, among other institutional investors.

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EBITDA margin, a key metric for measuring operating profitability and efficiency, climbed to 48.9 per cent from 46.2 per cent. Total finance cost diminished 15.8 per cent to $506 million.

Airtel Africa stated that its total customer base rose 10 per cent to 179.4 million, with data customers accounting for 81.8 million and growing by 14.6 per cent.

Profit before tax jumped 107.2 per cent to $1 billion from $494 million, while profit after tax accelerated by 136.6 per cent to $586 million from $248 million.