CITIZENS COMPASS– Airtel Nigeria on Thursday, said its total customer base grew by 8.7% to 166.1 million, with a focus on digital inclusion to support an increase in smartphone penetration.
The service provider disclosed this in its update made available to newsmen.
It reads, “ Our total customer base grew[1]by 8.7% to 166.1 million, with our focus on digital inclusion supporting a 4.3% increase in smartphone penetration to 44.8%. Data customers increased by 14.1% to 73.4 million, with data usage per customer increasing by 30.4% to 7.0 GB, supporting data ARPU growth of 15.4% in constant currency1.
Our continued investment in our Airtel Money agent network, enhanced digital offerings and expanded use cases contributed to a 17.3% increase in mobile money subscribers to 44.6 million and a 11.4% growth in constant currency ARPU. In Q4’25, transaction value increased by 34% in constant currency with annualised transaction value of $145bn.
Our strategic focus on great customer experience was underpinned by sustained network investment with the rollout of 2,583 new sites and approximately 3,300 kms of fibre, supporting increased data capacity across the region.
Financial performance
Revenues of $4,955m grew by 21.1% in constant currency but declined by 0.5% in reported currency as currency devaluation impacted reported revenues. Strong execution and the tariff adjustments in Nigeria contributed to a further quarter of accelerating growth, with Q4’25 revenue growth of 23.2% in constant currency, and 17.8% in reported currency as currency headwinds eased.
Across the Group, mobile services revenue grew by 19.6% in constant currency, driven by voice revenue growth of 10.6% and data revenue growth of 30.5%. Mobile money revenue grew by 29.9% in constant currency.
For the year ended 31 March 2025, underlying EBITDA declined by 5.1% in reported currency to $2,304m with underlying EBITDA margins of 46.5% compared to 48.8% in the prior year, impacted by increased fuel prices and the lower contribution of Nigeria to the Group. However, following a more stable operating environment and benefits from our cost efficiency programme, underlying EBITDA margins have expanded from 45.3% in Q1’25 to 47.3% in Q4’25.
Profit after tax of $328m improved from a $89m loss in the prior period. The prior period was significantly impacted by derivative and foreign exchange losses, primarily in Nigeria.
Basic EPS of 6.0 cents compares to negative (4.4 cents) in the prior period, predominantly reflecting lower derivative and foreign exchange losses in the current period. EPS before exceptional items declined from 10.1 cents in the prior period to 8.2 cents largely due to higher finance cost arising on account of tower contract renewals, which had a neutral to positive impact on cashflows, and a deferred impact of prior period currency devaluation.
Capital allocation
Capex of $670m was below our guidance, primarily reflecting a deferral of data centre investment. Capex guidance for the next year is between $725m and $750m as we continue to invest for future growth.
We have been consistently reducing our foreign currency debt exposure, having paid down $702m of foreign currency debt over the year. Furthermore, 93% of our OpCo debt (excl. lease liabilities) is now in local currency, up from 83% a year ago.
Leverage has increased from 1.4x to 2.3x, primarily reflecting the $1.3bn increase in lease liabilities arising from tower contract renewals. Lease-adjusted leverage increased from 0.7x in the prior period to 1.0x as of 31 March 2025, reflecting the impact of lower lease-adjusted underlying EBITDA given the translation impact arising from currency devaluation, and an increase in lease-adjusted net debt.
The Board has recommended a final dividend of 3.9 cents per share, making the total dividend for the full year 6.5 cents per share, a 9.2% growth from the previous year, in line with the dividend policy. In addition, during the year we returned $120m to shareholders through share buyback programmes.
Sunil Taldar, chief executive officer, on the trading update:
We have reported another strong operating performance as our strategy continues to deliver against the significant opportunity that exists across our markets. The focus on our refreshed strategy has seen continued investment in the network while also driving improvements in our digital platforms and offerings to further enhance the customer experience. This has enabled increased digital inclusion with a further 20% growth in our smartphone customers to 74.4m, contributing to a 47.5% increase in data traffic over the year. Furthermore, Airtel Money continues to support financial inclusion with customers increasing 17.3% to 44.6 million and an expanding ecosystem underpinning the $136bn transaction value, which increased 32% in constant currency.
An improving operating environment and focussed execution contributed to strong momentum in our financial results with constant currency revenue growth peaking at 23.2% in Q4’25. Part of this acceleration in the last quarter has also been driven by the Nigerian tariff adjustments.
This accelerating revenue growth and cost optimisation programme has supported quarterly EBITDA margin expansion during the year. Underlying EBITDA margins increased by 200bps from 45.3% in Q1’25 to 47.3% in Q4’25, and we remain focussed on further EBITDA margin improvements subject to macroeconomic stability. This, combined with our robust capital structure and disciplined capital allocation, puts us in a strong position to continue investing in network capacity to deliver continued growth.
We are making significant progress in our preparations for the Airtel Money IPO and remain committed to this objective. However, we are also mindful of evolving market conditions. Therefore, subject to these conditions, we anticipate a listing event in the first half of calendar year 2026.
The recent stability in the operating environment is encouraging, however we remain conscious of global developments that may impact our business. We will remain focussed on delivering our strategy to transform the lives of our customers and support economic prosperity across our markets. I want to say a particular thank-you to our customers, partners, governments and regulators for their support and our employees for their unrelenting contribution to the business.”
