Airtel Africa Plc has declared a dividend of 3.9 cents to its shareholders for the year ended 31 March 2025.
The company reported revenue of $4.955 billion for the 12 months period, down by 0.5% year on year from $4.979 billion reported the previous year. The slight decline is due to currency devaluation which impacted reported revenues.
For the year ended 31 March 2025, the company said underlying earnings before interest tax depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) declined by 5.1% in reported currency to $2.304 billion.
Hence, EBITDA margins came lower at 46.5%, compared to 48.8% in the prior year, impacted by increased fuel prices and the lower contribution of Nigeria to the Group.
The company reported that its profit after tax reached $328 million, up from $89 million loss in the prior period. Airtel said in its update that the prior period was significantly impacted by derivative and foreign exchange losses, primarily in Nigeria.
Earnings per share (EPS) of the Company rebounded to 6.0 cents as against the negative 4.4 cents in the prior period.
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. Airtel said during the year the telecom company returned $120 million to shareholders through share buyback programmes.
Commenting on the result, Sunil Taldar, Chief Executive Officerof Airtel Africa stated thus:
“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”.