Telecoms company Airtel Nigeria has recorded $699 million total revenue in the half year ending September 30, 2025. This represents a 46.5% year-on-year (YoY) increase based on reported currency change.
According to the company’s financial statement made available to the Nigerian Stock Exchange today, the revenue was driven by increased demand for data services. The full-period impact of tariff adjustments also influenced its performance.
The company recorded a 9.9% increase in total customers. It now has 53.6 million users, up from the 48.7 million in September 2024. This number makes Airtel Nigeria the second-largest mobile network operator in Nigeria, behind MTN Nigeria. Also during the period, its internet subscribers grew by 12.2% YoY to 29.5 million.
Similarly, its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) improved by 64.7% in naira and 71.9% in the foreign currency to $393 million. According to the company, the difference in constant and reported currency revenue growth was due to the devaluation of the Nigerian naira.
“The EBITDA margin increased 760 basis points to 56.3%, driven by the strong revenue growth and continued benefits arising from the cost efficiency programme. The strong margin performance was also supported by stable fuel prices and more favourable operating conditions,” the company said.
Also, operating free cash flow increased by 107.2% to $319 million, contributing to the EBITDA growth. Operating free cash flow also increased by 95.0%.
Airtel Nigeria’s voice revenue grew by 34.7% to $268 million, driven by voice average revenue per user (ARPU) growth of 25.7%. Likewise, its data revenue grew by 62.4% to $357 million from $229 million, fueled by the surge in data customers and data ARPU growth of 12.2% and 46.6%, respectively.
Notably, reported smartphone penetration is on the rise. The report noted that smartphone users increased by 4.2% to reach 52.8% by September 2025. The surge is attributed to the increase in data usage per customer by 24.9% to 10.1 GB per month (from 8.1 GB in the prior period).
The average smartphone data usage per customer topped 12.7 GB monthly compared to 10.9 GB as of September 2024.
Also Read: Airtel Nigeria to take on MTN, set to build 38MW data centre in Lagos.
Airtel Nigeria’s mobile money
Airtel Mobile Money (Smartcash Psb) continue to experience slow growth in Nigeria compared to other regions. This is attributed to high competition in the Nigerian mobile money market with players like Moniepoint, OPay, Kuda, Palmpay and other fintechs.
In its report, Airtel Nigeria reported a 46.1% YoY increase in mobile money customer base from 1.4 million to 2 million. This is still low compared to 38.9 million in its East African region and 8.9 million in Francophone Africa.
Its mobile money revenue jumped from $2 million to $4 million in September 2025. This represents a 149.2% increase in constant currency change and 136.4% in reported currency change. Notably, the revenue takes just 0.64% share in Airtel Africa’s $623 million for the period.
In comparison, Francophone Africa recorded $153 million (24.36% share) in revenue while East Africa saw $466 million (75%).
For the third quarter ending September 2025, Airtel Nigeria saw a total revenue of $366 million, a 49.5% YoY increase.
Further breakdown shows $135 million revenue from voice, $192 million from data and $2 million from mobile money. Other revenues raked in $39 million, and the EBITDA margin of 56.5%.
