By Radarr Africa Business Desk
LAGOS, October 27 (Radarr Africa) – Airtel Money, the mobile money arm of Airtel Africa, reported a 25.1 per cent rise in revenue to $830 million for the six months to the end of September, in its first results since listing in London, Reuters and Nairametrics reported.
Reuters said the growth was in constant currency and that profit after tax rose to $228 million from $188 million a year earlier, driven mainly by revenue growth. Nairametrics reported that revenue was up 34 per cent in reported currency and that profit after tax rose 21.6 per cent. The company declared an interim dividend of 6.4 US cents per share and reiterated its full-year guidance, according to Reuters.
Airtel Money chief executive Ian Basil Ferrao told Reuters: “Our oversubscribed London listing was a landmark achievement for Airtel Money.” Reuters reported that the shares made their market debut on October 9 at an offer price of 196 pence and closed at 179 pence on Friday, below the offer price.
Nairametrics said the business operates in 13 African markets. Customers rose 18.7 per cent to 56.7 million, and mobile money penetration among Airtel Africa’s telecoms customers reached 42.9 per cent, up 3.2 percentage points. Average revenue per user grew 5.1 per cent in constant currency, and transaction value per customer rose 14.9 per cent to $397 a month, the outlet reported.
By product line, Nairametrics reported that financial services revenue grew 44.8 per cent in constant currency, payments and transfers grew 29.4 per cent, and wallet services grew 27.6 per cent. Underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) were $398 million, up 16.1 per cent in constant currency.
The EBITDA margin fell to 48 per cent from 50.8 per cent, Nairametrics said. The company attributed about 270 basis points of the decline to changes to intra-group agreements effective from July 2025 and about 60 basis points to a levy in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and expects the margin to recover in the second half. On guidance, the outlet reported that the company reaffirmed revenue growth in the mid-20s per cent in constant currency for the 2027 financial year, and said the underlying EBITDA margin could fall by up to about 2 percentage points compared with the 2026 financial year before returning above 50 per cent over the medium term.
Activity on the platform expanded. Nairametrics reported that processed transaction value reached $128 billion for the half-year, up 36.8 per cent, with second-quarter volume of $67 billion, equivalent to about $270 billion annualised. App users rose 64.3 per cent to 4.1 million, agents rose 26.3 per cent to 2.4 million, and merchants rose 85.5 per cent to more than 587,000.
The interim dividend equates to about 81 per cent of attributable profit, in line with a policy of paying at least 80 per cent, Nairametrics said.
For the financial year ended March 2026, Airtel Africa’s mobile money business generated $1.08 billion in revenue, up from $770 million the year before, according to Nairametrics. The outlet said the company’s plans for the London listing were reported in September 2026.
Neither report named the individual markets in which Airtel Money operates, apart from the Congolese levy mentioned by Nairametrics.
