Airtel Africa’s Profit after tax soared by over 400% to US$156 million in Q1 2026, with revenues up 22% to US$1.42 billion, compared to the same period last year.
Record gains in data and mobile money powered this performance, despite ongoing macroeconomic headwinds across the telco’s major markets.East Africa remains Airtel Africa’s largest and fastest-growing region, accounting for nearly half of group revenue and dominating the mobile money business.The group saw broad-based growth in all major segments.
| Metric | Q1 2026 | Q1 2025 | YoY Growth |
|---|---|---|---|
Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization (EBITDA) rose 30% year-on-year to $679 million with the margins improving to 48.0%.Operating profit climbed 33% to $446 million, reflecting strong execution and some FX tailwinds.Data revenue surged 34% to $549 million followed by mobile money revenue with a 31% jump to $290 million, while voice grew 12% to $533 million.The customer base expanded by 14 Million, a 9% Year-on-year growth, reaching 169.4 million.
According to CEO Sunil Taldar, the business is benefitting from rising demand for digital and financial services:
“The strength of this performance, and the scale of the growth we achieved, reflects the sustained demand for our services and the strength of our business model to meet these demands…With smartphone penetration at only 45.9%, we see significant headroom to drive further adoption and play a key role in bridging the digital divide.”
Segment Highlights: Mobile Money Leads
Mobile money is still a major growth engine with revenue from this segment reaching $290 million, up 31%. Annualized transaction value rose to $162 billion a mobile money customer base grew 16% to 45.8 million.Segment EBITDA jumped 29% to $153 million, with a 52.7% margin. Importantly, East Africa still accounts for three-quarters of total mobile money revenues.
Mobile data revenue climbed 34% to $549 million as group’s data customers also increased by 17% to 75.6 million. Additionally, average monthly data usage per customer rose 26% to 7.8 GB, signaling faster digital adoption. ARPU for Q1 2026 was $2.4, up 11% YoY in reported currency.
Free cash flow increased 48% to $558 million. Capex fell 18% year-on-year, supporting margin gains. Leverage improved to 2.2x net debt to EBITDA. Basic EPS jumped to 3.4 US cents, compared to just 0.2 cents the year before.
East Africa: Still the Growth Engine
In Q1 2026, East Africa’s revenue surged 21% to $670 million with growth being spearheaded by voice (+16%), data (+22%), and mobile money (+30%).
Here’s a quick look at the region’s results:
| Metric | Q1 2026 | Q1 2025 | YoY Growth |
|---|---|---|---|
The total customer base for the region reached 79.1 million, up 10%. Data users grew 18% to 32.4 million with data usage per customer jumping 29% to 7.1 GB/month.Mobile money revenue in East Africa rose 30% to $216 million, further cementing the region’s status as the backbone of Airtel Africa’s fintech business.EBITDA for the region climbed 20% to $348 million, with margins holding steady above 51%.