Airtel Africa Q1 profit jumps 20% on Nigeria-led tariff boost
Bharti Airtel
's Africa business reported a 25% on-year growth in revenues on a constant currency basis to $1.41 billion, while net income grew nearly 20% to $156 million, in the quarter ended June, beating analyst estimates.
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They said Nigeria was the primary driver of this acceleration in revenue and profit. Local currency growth in Nigeria accelerated to 48.9% on-year in the June quarter, a significant jump from 40.1% in the previous quarter, Citi said in a research report Friday.
The Nigeria growth accelerated primarily due to the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) granting approval for tariff increases of up to 50% in January 2025, with implementation from the March quarter, with the June quarter seeing the full benefit of the adjustments, said Morgan Stanley in a report.
The group's revenue growth was helped further by accelerating data revenue and growth in its mobile money business. Data revenue accelerated across the group by 38.1% on-year, with the Nigeria region's growth at 60% on-year, supported by a 27.3% on-year growth in data usage per customer to 9.3 GB.
The Francophone region also continued its strong recovery, with constant currency revenue growth accelerating to 16.4% on-year, driven by significant improvement in data usage.
'Looking at Francophone, mobile revenue growth (constant currency) accelerated to 14.8% on year from 12.5% in Q4. EBITDA continued to inflect, +21.9% on year from 14.3% in Q4,' brokerage New Street Research said.
Revenue growth was also helped by Airtel Africa's customer base expansion, which grew to 169.4 million in the June quarter across its 14 regions in the continent.
'After two consecutive quarters of subscriber decline owing to NCC's directive to bar users without valid NINs or with multiple SIMs, the company resumed onboarding subscribers in Nigeria from July 23, 2025. This led to net additions of 0.3 million subscribers in Nigeria,' Morgan Stanley said.
The brokerage added that the group has a big growth opportunity with an additional 76 million people reaching over 15 years of age by 2030 across the company's markets, increasing smartphone penetration from a current 46%.
Airtel Africa's management said that the B2B segment presents a significant opportunity for growth, with connectivity services already generating revenue and ICT (Information and Connections Technology) solutions being developed.
'Data centres alongside home broadband and B2B services offer growth potential, particularly in markets like Nigeria. It (Airtel Africa Management) views data centers as a significant opportunity, driven by rising data consumption across Africa and the emerging AI wave that is expected to create additional opportunities in this segment,' Morgan Stanley said.
Airtel Africa also announced a partnership in May 2025 with Elon Musk's SpaceX to bring Starlink's high-speed satellite internet services to its customers.
'With this collaboration, Airtel Africa will enhance its next-generation satellite connectivity offerings and augment connectivity for enterprises, in most rural parts of Africa, per management,' Morgan Stanley added.
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