The Airtel Africa Story: 91 Million Smartphones, $6.4 Billion Revenue, and the Currency Headache That Won't Go Away

Let me start with a number that tells you everything about where telecom is heading in Africa. Ninety-one million. That is how many smartphone customers Airtel Africa now has. That is up 22 percent from the previous year. And those 91 million people are not just making calls. They are using data. They are watching videos. They are transferring money. They are running businesses. The data traffic on Airtel's network increased by almost 50 percent in one year according to Stock Street Journal. That is not growth. That is an explosion. And it is happening right now, across Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, and the dozen other African countries where Airtel operates.

Airtel Africa has announced its financial results for the year ended March 31, 2026, and the figures are impressive. Revenue reached $6.4 billion, up 29.5 percent in reported terms and 24 percent in constant currency. Net profit more than doubled to $813 million from $328 million the previous year—serious money by any standard. The company is adding over 3,250 new infrastructure sites annually, with more than 98 percent of its network now 4G-enabled. It has also rolled out over 3,100 5G sites across six African markets, including Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Malawi.

But here is the part of the story that does not make the headlines. Currency devaluation. If you are an investor reading Airtel's financial reports, you see two sets of numbers. Constant currency, which strips out exchange rate movements, and reported currency, which includes them. And the gap between the two is often painful. Last year, for example, Airtel's constant currency revenue grew 21.1 percent per report by Stock Street Journal, but reported revenue actually declined 0.5 percent because of the sharp devaluation of the Nigerian naira and other local currencies . That means even though the company sold more services and gained more customers, the money they earned was worth less in dollars. For a company that reports its results in dollars and has dollar-denominated debt, that is a serious headache.

Let me translate that into everyday language. Imagine you run a business in Ghana. You sell more goods every month. Your customer base is growing. But every time you convert your cedis into dollars to pay for imported equipment or to report your profits to foreign investors, you get less because the cedi has fallen. That is what Airtel Africa has been facing. Their largest market is Nigeria, and the naira has been on a rollercoaster. So even as they sign up millions of new customers and sell more data and mobile money services, the currency crisis eats into their bottom line.

The company has been fighting back with a strategy called debt localisation. They have been reducing their exposure to foreign currency debt by borrowing more in local currencies. By the end of 2025, about 95 percent of their operating company debt was in local currency, up from 89 percent a year earlier . That means when the naira or the kwacha or the shilling falls, their debt burden does not automatically balloon. It is a smart move. But it does not solve the revenue conversion problem. As long as Airtel reports in dollars and earns in local currencies, currency volatility will remain a risk.

The most exciting part of the business for Ghana is mobile money. Airtel Money pulled in $1.3 billion in revenue, up 28.4% in constant currency, with customers rising 21.3% to 54.1 million. Annualized transaction volume topped $215 billion in the fourth quarter—an incredible amount of money flowing through Airtel’s mobile money platform each year. In regions where many people lack bank accounts, mobile money has become the de facto banking system, enabling payments for goods, remittances, bill payments, and even savings—all via phone. Airtel Money now makes up 21.1% of group revenue, proving it’s not a side business but a core pillar.

For Ghana, where mobile money is already deeply embedded, this matters. Airtel competes with MTN and others in our market. The more they invest in network infrastructure and mobile money platforms, the better the services become for ordinary Ghanaians. But there is also a lesson here about currency. Mobile money transactions are in cedis. When the cedi is stable, the value of those transactions in dollar terms is predictable. When the cedi is volatile, it creates uncertainty for investors. That is another reason why the Bank of Ghana's efforts to stabilise the currency are so important. It is not just about importers and exporters. It is about attracting and retaining investment in digital infrastructure.

Airtel is also investing heavily in the future. They are building data centres through their subsidiary Nxtra. In September 2025, they began construction of a 44-megawatt hyperscale data centre in Nairobi, expected to become East Africa's largest data centre upon completion in 2027. They also started a 38-megawatt data centre project in Lagos . These are massive facilities that will support cloud computing, AI applications, and enterprise services. And they are expanding their fibre network by thousands of kilometres, with total fibre deployment now nearing 82,000 kilometres across the continent . That fibre is the backbone of high-speed internet. The more fibre you have, the faster and more reliable your network becomes.

There is also an interesting partnership Airtel announced with SpaceX to launch Starlink Direct-to-Cell satellite connectivity across its 14 African markets . That means even in rural areas without terrestrial network coverage, people may soon be able to get mobile service directly from satellites. For countries like Ghana with underserved rural communities, this could be transformative. But it will depend on regulatory approvals in each country.

Let me also address the job cuts I wrote about in my previous column. Airtel Africa is not announcing massive layoffs like Standard Chartered. In fact, they are expanding. They are rolling out thousands of new sites, building data centres, and laying fibre. That requires engineers, technicians, salespeople, and customer service staff. But the broader trend remains. AI and automation will change which jobs exist. Airtel's focus on data centres and digital platforms means they will need more people with technical skills and fewer people doing manual, repetitive tasks. That is the same pattern everywhere.

The company's leverage, which is a fancy way of saying how much debt they carry relative to their earnings, has been improving. Their net debt to EBITDA ratio, one of the key metrics investors watch, improved from 2.3 times to 2.1 times . That means they are earning more relative to what they owe. That is a sign of financial health. And they have increased their capital expenditure guidance for the current year to between 875millionand875millionand900 million . They are spending money to grow, not just cutting costs.

So what does this all mean for Ghana? It means that the telecom sector is still a growth story. Data usage is exploding. Smartphone penetration is rising. Mobile money is becoming a financial lifeline. And companies like Airtel are investing billions of dollars in infrastructure. But the currency problem is real. Every time the cedi takes a hit, it makes Ghana a less attractive place for these companies to invest their dollars. They will still invest because themarket is huge and growing. But they will demand higher returns to compensate for the risk. And those higher returns eventually come from higher prices for consumers.

The government's role is to maintain stability. Not just in the currency, but in policies. Telecom companies need predictable regulation, reasonable taxes, and a clear framework for issues like tower siting and spectrum allocation. The heated exchange in Parliament between Sam George and Abena Osei Asare over poor network service was a reminder that consumers are frustrated. But the solution is not to shout at the minister. It is to create an environment where companies like Airtel can invest confidently and where regulators hold them accountable for quality of service.

Airtel Africa is betting big on Africa's digital future. Ninety-one million smartphone customers. Fifty-four million mobile money users. Thousands of new network sites. Hundreds of millions of dollars in investment. The numbers are impressive. But the currency headache remains. And until African economies solve the problem of volatile exchange rates, every impressive growth number will come with a footnote. "Results were impacted by currency devaluation." That is not a footnote we should accept forever. It is a challenge we must overcome. Because the potential is enormous. And the companies willing to invest are already here. They just need us to meet them halfway.

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Source: Accra Street Journal