Airtel Africa has reported a strong financial and operational performance for the financial year ended March 31, 2026, underpinned by rapid growth in mobile data usage, expanding smartphone penetration, and continued momentum in Airtel Money services across its African footprint.
The telecommunications giant announced that revenue grew by 29.5 percent in reported currency to US$6.415 billion, while constant currency revenue growth stood at 24 percent, reflecting what the company described as a year of “standout growth powered by strong fundamentals and disciplined execution.”
The results highlight the growing importance of digital connectivity and financial inclusion services across Africa, with Airtel Africa strengthening its position as one of the continent’s leading telecommunications and mobile financial services providers.
For Uganda, the results reinforce Airtel’s continued investment in digital infrastructure, network expansion, and mobile financial services, sectors that are increasingly shaping the country’s digital economy.
Strong customer growth across Africa
Airtel Africa’s total customer base rose by 10.5 percent to 183.5 million customers, representing the company’s highest net customer additions to date.
The growth was largely driven by rising demand for internet services and digital connectivity, as more consumers across Africa adopted smartphones and mobile internet services.
Data customers increased by 14.8 percent to 84.2 million users, while smartphone penetration climbed by another 4.7 percent to 49.5 percent.
The company said average monthly data usage per customer increased significantly from 7.0 gigabytes to 8.9 gigabytes, highlighting the increasing appetite for streaming, social media, digital commerce, online education, and remote working solutions.
Data revenues, now the largest contributor to Airtel Africa’s earnings, grew by 35.2 percent in constant currency, underscoring the strategic importance of internet services to the group’s future growth.
Airtel Money records major expansion
Airtel Money continued to emerge as one of the company’s strongest growth pillars during the year.
The mobile financial services platform expanded its customer base by 21.3 percent to 54.1 million users, driven by growing adoption of digital payment solutions, merchant services, and cross-platform financial transactions.
The company reported that annualised total processed value on the platform grew by 49 percent to more than US$215 billion during the fourth quarter of the financial year.
Airtel Africa attributed the growth to broader use cases across the platform, increasing customer trust in digital financial services, and deeper ecosystem integration.
Mobile money has become increasingly central to financial inclusion across Uganda and the wider East African region, particularly among populations underserved by traditional banking systems.
The company also reported an 8.6 percent increase in Airtel Money average revenue per user in constant currency, reflecting stronger customer engagement and increased transaction activity.
The performance comes at a time when mobile money services are playing an increasingly critical role in facilitating business transactions, remittances, savings, and digital commerce.
Profitability improves significantly
Airtel Africa posted substantial gains in profitability during the financial year.
Underlying EBITDA rose by 37.2 percent in reported currency to US$3.162 billion, while EBITDA margins improved to 49.3 percent.
The company also achieved an all-time high quarterly EBITDA margin of 50.3 percent during the fourth quarter.
Profit after tax increased sharply to US$813 million from US$328 million recorded in the previous financial year.
The company said the improved profitability was driven by stronger operating performance and foreign exchange gains compared to losses experienced in the prior year.
Basic earnings per share also rose significantly from 6.0 cents to 18.6 cents.
The strong earnings performance enabled the Board to recommend a final dividend of 4.26 cents per share, bringing the total dividend for the year to 7.1 cents per share, representing a 9.2 percent increase from the previous year.
Network investment and infrastructure expansion
Airtel Africa significantly increased investment in network infrastructure during the year as part of efforts to improve connectivity and expand service reach.
Capital expenditure rose by 31.9 percent to US$884 million.
The company rolled out more than 3,250 new network sites and expanded its fibre network by approximately 3,200 kilometres, bringing its total fibre footprint to 81,900 kilometres.
The investments are aimed at strengthening network resilience, improving service quality, and supporting rising data demand across the company’s markets.
Airtel Africa also announced that capital expenditure guidance for the 2027 financial year will increase further to approximately US$1.1 billion.
The planned investments will focus on expanding network coverage and capacity, accelerating home broadband services, and growing data centre infrastructure.
The expansion aligns with growing demand for high-speed internet, cloud services, and enterprise digital solutions across Africa.
Commenting on the results, Airtel Africa Chief Executive Officer Sunil Taldar described the year as one of exceptional performance across both operational and financial metrics.
“This year delivered a very strong performance across both operating and financial metrics, reflecting the attractive industry fundamentals and structural growth drivers across our footprint. This backdrop, and the continued success of our strategy contributed to our highest level of customer additions, revenue and EBITDA growth. Adoption of new digital technologies and AI has been pivotal in unlocking growth opportunities and driving efficiencies, with wide‑ranging rollouts enhancing customer experience through site‑level network optimisation, streamlined onboarding and accelerating the rollout of myAirtel app, a single-touchpoint customer interface designed to streamline service adoption and deliver a more intuitive digital journey. This focused strategy has contributed to a further 22% increase in smartphone customers to 91 million, driving an almost 50% increase in data traffic and, together with another strong Airtel Money performance, supported a step-up in constant‑currency revenue growth to 24.0%.
Airtel Money has made strong progress across digital adoption, ecosystem expansion and product innovation this year. Customer engagement continues to deepen, with app transacting customers up 74% and annualised TPV of over $215bn in Q4’26. Market conditions following recent geopolitical developments have affected the anticipated timing of the Airtel Money IPO. We have made good progress and remain committed to the listing as market conditions allow, with the intention of undertaking the IPO in the second half of 2026.
Our ongoing cost efficiency programme and strong top-line performance both contributed to underlying EBITDA margins of 49.3%, peaking at 50.3% in Q4’26. The recent increase in energy costs arising from the ongoing geopolitical events will likely lead to increased cost inflation, resulting in EBITDA margin pressure in the near-term. However, with a strong growth outlook, and an enhanced focus on cost efficiencies, we will look to limit the overall impact on our business.
Our accelerated investment strategy remains focused on maximising value from our core growth businesses, while investing in new and fast‑growing areas, including enterprise, that will further advance both digital and financial inclusion and help transform communities across our footprint. I want to say a particular thank-you to our customers, governments, regulators and partners for their support and our employees for their ongoing contribution to our continued successes.”
The company also reported a 22 percent increase in smartphone customers to 91 million users, contributing to nearly 50 percent growth in data traffic during the year.
Rising energy costs pose potential challenge
Despite the strong performance, Airtel Africa cautioned that rising global energy costs linked to ongoing geopolitical developments could increase operational expenses in the near term.
The company warned that higher energy costs may place pressure on EBITDA margins going forward.
However, management said ongoing cost-efficiency measures and strong revenue growth are expected to help cushion the impact.
Outlook remains positive
Airtel Africa said it remains optimistic about long-term growth prospects across its markets.
The company plans to continue investing aggressively in digital infrastructure, enterprise solutions, mobile financial services, and broadband connectivity.
For Uganda, the continued expansion of network infrastructure and mobile financial services is expected to contribute to major economic transformation, increased connectivity, and improved access to digital financial solutions.
| GAAP measures (Year ended) | |||
| Description | Mar-26 | Mar-25 | Reported currency |
| $m | $m | change | |
| Revenue | 6,415 | 4,955 | 29.5% |
| Operating profit | 2,115 | 1,457 | 45.1% |
| Profit after tax | 813 | 328 | 147.4% |
| Basic EPS ($ cents) | 18.6 | 6.0 | 212.2% |
| Net cash generated from operating activities | 3,195 | 2,266 | 41.0% |
| Alternative performance measures (APM)[1] (Year ended) | ||||
| Description | Mar-26 | Mar-25 | Reported currency | Constant currency |
| $m | $m | change | change | |
| Revenue | 6,415 | 4,955 | 29.5% | 24.0% |
| Underlying EBITDA | 3,162 | 2,304 | 37.2% | 30.4% |
| Underlying EBITDA margin | 49.3% | 46.5% | 280 bps | 240 bps |
| EPS before exceptional items ($ cents) | 18.6 | 8.2 | 127.7% | |
| Operating free cash flow | 2,278 | 1,634 | 39.4% | |
