AIRTEL Africa has announced the purchase of 40,000 ordinary shares of $0.50 each from Barclays Capital Securities Limited as part of its share buy-back programme, which was announced on September 22, 2025.

The volume weighted average price paid for each share is £370.59, implying that Airtel Africa spent over £14.8 million on the share purchase. A buyback, also known as a share repurchase, occurs when a company purchases its own outstanding stock shares to reduce their number on the open market, according to Investopedia, which focuses on business and economy.

Airtel Africa said following the purchase of the ordinary shares, the remaining ordinary shares of $0.50 each in issue would be 3,655,760,539, including 7,489,044 treasury shares.

Accordingly, the telecom company said the total number of voting rights in the company is 3,648,271,495. “This figure may be used by shareholders as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine whether they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in, the Company under the Financial Conduct Authority’s Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules,” Airtel Africa said.

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“Since the commencement of the first tranche of the $100m share buy-back programme announced on 23 December 2024, the Company has purchased 41,045,209 ordinary shares in aggregate, at a volume weighted average price of 152.8642 GBp per ordinary share.”

Airtel Africa’s financials

Airtel Africa reported a profit after tax (PAT) of $376 million for the nine months of 2025. The profit was a significant increase from $79 million in the prior year, benefiting from currency gain due largely to the naira appreciation.

Its revenue rose to $2.982 billion, recording strong constant currency growth of 24.5 percent.

Data revenue contributed significantly to group revenue, buoyed by a 37.0 percent constant currency growth in data revenue and a 45 percent increase in data traffic. Total customer base rose 11 percent to 173.8 million, while data customers grew 18.4 percent to 78.1 million.

The company’s mobile money service, known as Airtel Money, was strong over the period, with a customer base of nearly 50 million mark and annualised total processed value (TPV) approaching $200 billion.

Chief Executive Officer of Airtel Africa, Mr Sunil Taldar, said: “These stellar results demonstrate the successful execution of our strategy, which is focused on providing a superior customer experience and driving digital and financial inclusion across our markets. We are extremely pleased with the surge in both our data and Mobile Money segments. Airtel Money, with its customer base nearing 50 million and TPV approaching $200 billion yearly, continues to gain formidable momentum and is on course for a potential public listing in the first half of 2026.

He said Airtel Africa was scaling its network capacity to meet the substantial demand for data services, as reflected by the increase in smartphone penetration to 46.8 percent. To accelerate its ability to capitalise on the significant growth opportunity available in the region, he said the telecom firm had increased its capital expenditure guidance for the full 2026 financial year to between $875 million and $900 million.

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“We remain confident in our strategy to drive further incremental margin improvements and deliver sustained value for our shareholders.”

MTN Nigeria Communications Plc and Airtel Nigeria reported a combined profit surge of about N1.83 trillion in the same period, buoyed by naira stability, rising data consumption, and the rebound of their fintech and voice segments.

MTN Nigeria’s nine-month 2025 results showed profit after tax rose to N750.2 billion, marking one of the strongest corporate recoveries in recent memory. The performance represented a 245.7 percent turnaround from the N514.9 billion loss recorded in the same period of 2024, driven mainly by strong data growth, fintech expansion, and disciplined cost management.