Airtel Africa reports strong revenue and customer growth, bolstered by data, mobile money, and network investments despite currency fluctuations. Airtel Africa plc has announced its results for the nine-month period ended 31 December 2024 on Thursday.

Operating Highlights

The total customer base grew by 7.9% to 163.1 million. Data customer penetration continues to rise, with a 13.8% increase in data customers to 71.4 million. Data usage per customer increased by 32.3% to 6.9 GBs, with smartphone penetration increasing by 5.2% to reach 44.2%.

The continued investment to increase financial inclusion across our markets contributed to an 18.3% increase in mobile money subscribers to 44.3 million. Transaction value in Q3’25 increased by 33.3% in constant currency1 with annualised transaction value of $146bn.

Data ARPU growth of 15.0% and mobile money ARPU growth of 11.8% in constant currency continued to support overall ARPUs which rose 12.0% YoY in constant currency.

Customer experience remains core to our strategy with sustained network investment during the period. In line with our strategic priorities, data capacity across our network has increased by 20.8% with the rollout of 2,850 sites and approximately 2,600 kms of fibre.

Financial performance

Revenues of $3,638m grew by 20.4% in constant currency but declined by 5.8% in reported currency as currency devaluation continued to impact reported revenue trends. Strong execution supported a further quarter of accelerating growth with Q3’25 revenue growth of 21.3% in constant currency and reported currency revenue growth of 2.5%.

Across the Group, mobile services revenue grew by 18.8% in constant currency, driven by voice revenue growth of 9.8% and data revenue growth of 29.5%. Mobile money revenue grew by 29.6% in constant currency.

EBITDA for the nine-month period declined by 11.9% in reported currency to $1,681m with EBITDA margins of 46.2% impacted by increased fuel prices and the lower contribution of Nigeria to the Group. However, following initial successes of our cost efficiency programme, EBITDA margins have expanded from 45.3% in Q1’25 to 46.9% in Q3’25.

In Q3’25, profit after tax benefitted from an exceptional gain of $94m (net of tax) following the naira and Tanzanian shilling appreciation. However, over the nine-month period ending 31 December 2024, profit after tax of $248m was impacted by $57m of exceptional derivative and foreign exchange losses (net of tax).

EPS before exceptional items declined from 7.1 cents in the prior period to 6.2 cents, primarily impacted by increased costs associated with the ATC contract renewal, which had no impact on cashflows. Basic EPS of 4.4 cents compares to negative (1.6 cents) in the prior period, predominantly reflecting lower derivative and foreign exchange losses in the current period.

Sunil Taldar, Chief Executive Officer, Airtel Africa plc, said:  “We have delivered an improvement in both the operating and financial performance in the last quarter driven by our refined strategy which is focussed on delivering great customer experience across all touch points.

“An increasingly important component of this is to provide a best-in-class network, digitise and simplify the customer journey. Our focus on speed and quality execution is enabling us to unlock the substantial opportunities for growth across our markets and business segments, where demand remains significant, resulting in a further acceleration of constant currency revenue growth to 21.3% in the most recent quarter.

“We remain committed to investing for the future by expanding our distribution and network to ensure that we capture this significant growth opportunity on offer. Despite the challenging environment for many of our customers, we continue to see strong demand for our services as we enable connectivity and facilitate access to the digital economy.

“The scale of data traffic growth across our markets – an increase of 49% over the last year – is testament to the investments we have made and the relentless focus on our strategy to create value for all our stakeholders.

“As we have communicated previously, our cost efficiency programme continues to deliver EBITDA margin improvements, with a further expansion of margins in Q3’25. We continue to focus on further margin improvement.

“Furthermore, our capital structure remains robust with just 8% of OpCo debt in foreign currency – a substantial improvement over the last year. This, together with continued confidence in the outlook for the business, has enabled the Board to announce a second share buyback programme, which will return up to $100m to shareholders.

“The recent signs of currency stabilization in some markets and the recent decision from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) regarding tariff adjustments in Nigeria are encouraging and signal a more stable and supportive operating environment. While challenges remain, these developments provide a firm foundation for growth and improved market conditions”.