* Driven by its 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
By Duncan Mlanjira
In its results for nine-month period ended December 31, 2024 to January 30, 2025, Airtel Africa Plc contends that it has delivered an improvement in both the operating and financial performance in the last quarter — driven by its refined strategy which is focussed on delivering great customer experience across all touch points.
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This is a comment in the report from Airtel Africa chief Executive Officer, Sunil Taldar, saying: “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.”
Operating highlights
The Group reports that the total customer base grew by 7.9% to 163.1 million and that 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%,” says the report. “
“The continued investment to increase financial inclusion across our markets contributed to an 18.3% increase in mobile money subscribers to 44.3 million [while] transaction value in Q3’25 increased by 33.3% in constant currency with annualised transaction value of US$146 billion.”
The company further says data average revenue per user (ARPU), growth was 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 2,600kms of fibre.”
Financial performance
Airtel Africa reports that revenues of US$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.”
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA)
The report says EBITDA for the nine-month period declined by 11.9% in reported currency to US$1,681 million 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 US$94 million (net of tax) following the Nigerian naira and Tanzanian shilling appreciation. However, over the nine-month period ending 31 December 2024, profit after tax of US$248 million was impacted by US$57 million of exceptional derivative and foreign exchange losses (net of tax).
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“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.
Capital allocation
Capex of US$456m was 7.8% lower compared to prior period,” reports the company, adding that “Capex guidance for the full year remains between US$725 million and US$750 million as we continue to invest for future growth”.
“We have been consistently reducing our foreign currency debt exposure, having paid down US$739 million of foreign currency debt over the last year. Furthermore, 92% of our OpCo debt (excl. lease liabilities) is now in local currency, up from 79% a year ago.
“Leverage has increased from 1.3x to 2.4x primarily reflecting the US$1.2 billion increase in lease liabilities arising from the extension of our tower lease agreements with ATC as previously announced.
“To reflect the Group’s financial market debt position and reduce volatility associated with lease accounting under IFRS16, the Group has introduced ‘Lease-adjusted leverage’ as an additional APM in the current period.
“Lease-adjusted leverage increased from 0.7x in the prior period to 1.1x as of 31 December 2024 reflecting the impact of higher debt and lower lease-adjusted EBITDA given the translation impact arising from currency devaluation.”
Airtel Africa adds that following the completion of the first US$100 million buyback, in December 2024, they announced the commencement of a second share buyback programme that will return up to US$100m to shareholders.
“This reflects the Board’s confidence in the continued growth potential, the strength of the balance sheet and consistent cash accretion at the holding company level.”
CEO Sunil Taldar
Thus CEO Taldar’s assertion that they have delivered an improvement in both the operating and financial performance in the last quarter driven by their refined strategy which is focussed on delivering great customer experience across all touch points.
“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,” he adds in the report.
“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 US$100 million to shareholders.
“The recent signs of currency stabilisation 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.”
Airtel Africa is a leading provider of telecommunications and mobile money services, with operations in 14 countries in sub-Saharan Africa — providing an integrated offer to its subscribers, including mobile voice and data services as well as mobile money services both nationally and internationally.
The company’s strategy is focused on providing a great customer experience across the entire footprint, enabling its corporate purpose of transforming lives across Africa.
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