Airtel Africa delivered its strongest financial performance since its 2019 dual listing in London and Lagos, reporting a 29.5% rise in full-year revenue to US$ 6.42Bn and a record profit after tax of US$ 813Mn, as a shift in its revenue mix away from voice and toward data and mobile money reshapes the company's long-term earnings profile.
- •Underlying EBITDA rose 37.2% to $3.16Bn, with margins expanding 280 basis points to an all-time high of 49.3% even as operating expenses rose 22.7%.
- •The fourth quarter margin of 50.3% marked the first time the group has crossed the 50% threshold.
- •For the first time in the company's listed history, data has overtaken voice as the single largest revenue segment.
Operating profit rose 45.1% to $2.12Bn. Profit before tax more than doubled to $1.42Bn from $661Mn, while profit after tax reached a record $813Mn against $328Mn in the prior year. Derivative and foreign exchange gains of $127Mn in FY2026, compared to losses of $179Mn in FY2025, created a $306Mn swing at the pre-tax line.
The results for the year ended 31 March 2026 mark a recovery from two years of reported currency contraction driven by Nigeria's naira devaluation, which had suppressed headline figures in FY2024 and FY2025 despite underlying constant-currency growth.
With the naira stabilizing and Nigeria delivering 47.5% constant-currency revenue growth, partly aided by long-overdue tariff adjustments, the group's reported numbers now more accurately reflect the scale of its operational momentum across 14 sub-Saharan African markets.
Chief executive Sunil Taldar credited the performance to disciplined execution and digital investment. "This year delivered a very strong performance across both operating and financial metrics," he said, pointing to a 22% increase in smartphone customers to 91 million and an almost 50% rise in data traffic as evidence that the group's digital strategy is translating into measurable revenue outcomes.
Data Takes the Lead
Data revenue rose 40.3% to $2.53Bn, now accounting for 39.4% of group revenue, up from 36.4% a year earlier. Voice, at $2.32Bn, grew 18.0% but its share continues to narrow. The crossover reflects both the rapid expansion of the group's 4G network, now covering 98.5% of all sites, and a 4.7 percentage point rise in smartphone penetration to 49.5% across the footprint.
Data usage per customer rose to 8.9 GB per month from 7.0 GB, a 27% increase and with smartphone penetration still below 50% and mobile penetration across the footprint at around 50%, the data runway remains substantial.
Mobile money revenue grew 36.3% to $1.36Bn, with the Airtel Money customer base crossing 54 million, up 21.3%. Annualized total processed value exceeded $215Bn in the fourth quarter, nearly eightfold the $23.6Bn recorded at listing in FY2019. App transacting customers grew 74% year on year, a metric that management views as the clearest indicator of ecosystem deepening rather than surface-level customer acquisition.
Balance Sheet and Capital Allocation
Leverage improved to 1.8x net debt to EBITDA from 2.3x, with lease-adjusted leverage falling to 0.5x from 1.0x. Excluding lease obligations, net debt has actually declined to $1.37Bn from $1.70Bn, a figure that puts the group's balance sheet risk in considerably better context than the gross net debt figure of $5.59Bn.
Capex rose 31.9% to $884Mn, funding the rollout of 3,250 new sites and an expansion of the fibre network by 3,200 km to 81,900 km. Management has guided for FY2027 capex of approximately $1.1Bn, accelerating investment into home broadband and data centres, including a 44 MW hyperscale facility under construction in Nairobi's Tatu City, anticipated to be the largest data centre in East Africa on completion.
The board recommended a final dividend of 4.26 cents per share, bringing the full-year total to 7.10 cents, a 9.2% increase on the prior year.
Operating free cash flow rose 39.4% to $2.28Bn, extending an unbroken run of annual growth since listing. From $702Mn in FY2019, cumulative free cash flow generation has now exceeded $12Bn over eight years, the clearest evidence that the infrastructure-heavy business model is maturing into a cash compounding machine across some of the world's least penetrated but fastest-growing telecoms markets.
