Airtel Africa has reaffirmed plans to list its mobile money unit, Airtel Money, in the first half of 2026, as transaction volumes across the platform crossed $210 billion on an annualised basis.
Speaking during the company’s earnings call for the nine months ended December 31, 2025, Sunil Taldar, the company’s chief executive officer, said preparations for the initial public offer (IPO) remain on schedule, with the group close to finalising the preferred listing venue.
“We continue to evaluate all major listing venues, and we are very close to finalising the preferred location. We will provide updates to the market in due course,” Taldar said.
The CEO added that Airtel Money emerged as one of the company’s strongest growth drivers during the period, expanding its customer base to more than 52 million subscribers, a 17.3 percent year-on-year increase.
The platform’s annualised total processed value rose by 36 percent to over $210 billion in the nine months ended December 31, 2025, reflecting deeper merchant integration, rising person-to-person transfers, and broader adoption of digital payments across Airtel Africa’s markets.
Mobile money revenue climbed by 29.4 percent in constant currency, supported by higher transaction volumes and increased customer engagement. Average revenue per user (ARPU) also improved as users relied more frequently on the service for daily transactions.
“Only about 52 million of its nearly 180 million GSM customers currently use Airtel Money, pointing to significant room for long-term expansion,” he said during the call.
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Data business leads revenue growth
According to the company’s nine-month financial results released on Friday, alongside mobile money, Airtel Africa’s data segment boosted the company’s profit after tax, which grew to $586 million in the nine months ended December 31, 2025, up from $248 million in the corresponding period of 2024.
It revealed that average data usage per customer rose to 8.6GB per month, up from 6.9GB in the previous period, while data ARPU increased by 16.6 percent in constant currency.
Data revenues surged by 36.5 percent, making it the group’s largest revenue contributor as smartphone adoption and internet usage accelerate across the continent.
To meet growing digital demand, Airtel Africa expanded its infrastructure footprint during the period, rolling out approximately 2,500 new network sites and extending its fibre network by 4,000 kilometres.
This brought the total fibre length to more than 81,500km, while population coverage improved to 81.7 percent.
Smartphone penetration increased by 3.9 percentage points to 48.1 percent, supported by affordable devices and improved network capacity.
“During the quarter, we accelerated investment to enhance coverage and data capacity while also expanding our fibre network. Coupling this investment with innovative partnerships strengthens our customer proposition and positions us to capture the considerable growth opportunity across our markets,” the CEO disclosed in the report.
