Airtel Africa’s first-quarter profit surges by 403%

Airtel Africa’s net profit for the first quarter ended 30 June 2025 climbed by 403.2 per cent to $156 million, partly driven by a 34.1 per cent increase in data revenue, its financial results for the period showed on Thursday.

Revenue for the wireless operator, which operates in 14 African countries as a provider of telecom and mobile money services, climbed 22.4 per cent to $1.4 billion, with data and voice revenues fuelling growth.

Airtel Africa attributed the jump in constant currency revenue from the previous quarter’s figure to both the positive impact of tariff adjustments in Nigeria and a strong performance in its Francophone Africa’s operations.

This year, Nigeria’s telecom industry’s regulator, Nigerian Communications Commission, approved a 50 per cent hike in telecom tariffs, including costs of call, SMS and data, to enable operators weather the harsh financial impact of sharp devaluations of the naira between mid-2023 and last year.

The company delivered a 9 per cent increase in its total customer base, which expanded to 169 million during the period, just as data customers rose 17.4 per cent to 75.6 million.

Its mobile money business, Airtel Money, grew its customers by 16.1 per cent to 45.8 million, highlighting its efforts at deepening financial inclusion in the markets within which it operates.

“Our strategy continues to prioritise the customer experience, as demonstrated by the launch of Airtel Spam Alert—an AI-powered solution aimed at enhancing trust and delivering a safer network environment,” said CEO Sunil Taldar.

“The continued expansion of our mobile money portfolio and the advancement of enterprise and digital payments contributed to a 35% growth in annualised transaction value to $162bn,” he added.

EBITDA, a financial metric that measures operating performance and profitability by excluding expenses such as interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, rose 29.8 per cent to $679 million.

Total finance costs fell 33.7 per cent to $173 million. Profit before tax jumped to $273 from $74 million, while after-tax profit rose to $156 million from $31 million.

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Net profit margin, a profitability indicator that measures how much of revenue has turned into net profit, stood at 11 per cent, compared to 2.7 per cent a year ago.

Airtel Africa announced late last year the start of a second share repurchase programme through which it plans to return $100 million to shareholders. The first phase of the transaction, completed in April 2025, returned $45 million to shareholders after buying back 26.3 million shares.

The second tranche of the programme, which began in May, plans to repurchase a maximum of $55 million shares, had bought back 7.1 million shares worth $16.9 million as of 30 June 2025, Airtel said.