LILONGWE-(MaraviPost)-Airtel Africa has now 183.5 million customers, marking a 10.5 percent increase.
This is the highest net additions in the company’s history during the financial year ended March 31, 2026.
The smartphone network provider observes that the strong growth was driven by rising smartphone adoption, increased internet usage and expanding digital financial services across the company’s African markets.
According to the company’s financial results released on May 11, 2026, data customers increased by 14.8 percent to 84.2 million, while smartphone penetration rose to 49.5 percent.
Average data usage per customer climbed from 7.0 gigabytes to 8.9 gigabytes per month, contributing to a 16.2 percent increase in constant currency data average revenue per user (ARPU).
The company’s mobile money platform, Airtel Money, also recorded strong growth during the period.
The report says the customer base expanded by 21.3 percent to 54.1 million users, while annualised total processed transaction value rose by 49 percent to more than 215 billion US dollars during the fourth quarter of 2026.
Financially, Airtel Africa reported a 29.5 percent increase in revenue to 6.4 billion US dollars.
Underlying EBITDA rose by 37.2 percent to 3.16 billion US dollars, while profit after tax more than doubled to 813 million US dollars from 328 million US dollars recorded in the previous financial year.
The company also increased capital investment to 884 million US dollars to support network expansion and service quality improvements.
During the year, Airtel Africa rolled out more than 3,250 new network sites and expanded its fibre network to 81,900 kilometres.
Chief Executive Officer of Airtel Africa, Sunil Taldar, said the results reflect strong demand for digital services and continued investment in technology and innovation.
Taldar added that adoption of digital technologies and artificial intelligence had improved customer experience and operational efficiency through network optimisation, streamlined onboarding and expansion of the myAirtel app.
“Adoption of new digital technologies and AI has been pivotal in unlocking growth opportunities and driving efficiencies,” he said.
The board therefore has proposed a final dividend of 4.26 cents per share, bringing the total dividend for the year to 7.1 cents per share, representing a 9.2 percent increase from the previous year.
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