In Kenya, Safaricom has long been the elephant in the room. It dominates mobile services and has built a near-untouchable fortress around M-Pesa. But step back and look at Africa as a whole, and a different story emerges. Airtel Africa — often underrated as a challenger here in Kenya — is quietly building scale, speed, and reach that should make even Safaricom sit up and take notice.

Big Numbers & Even Bigger Momentum

Last week I received Airtel Africa’s half year results ending September 2025 and their revenues revenue hit an impressive 2.98 billion US dollars, up 25.8% compared to the same period last year. Not bad at all!

Profit after tax jumped nearly five times to 376 million dollars, thanks to both revenue growth and currency gains in Nigeria and francophone markets.

The customer base is now 173.8 million people across 14 countries, growing by 11% year-on-year. Out of these, 78.1 million are internet users — an increase of 18.4% in just one year.

One telling shift: internet revenue has overtaken voice as its largest business line. Internet revenues grew by 37% to reach 1.16 billion dollars, compared to voice which grew by 13.2% to 1.1 billion dollars

Data traffic across Airtel’s networks surged by 45%, and average revenue per internet user rose by almost 17%.

Smartphone penetration across Airtel Africa’s footprint climbed to 46.8%, up nearly four percentage points in one year. That still leaves more than half the market on basic / feature phones — huge headroom for even more growth going forward.

Building The Digital Rails

Airtel Africa isn’t just counting customers; it’s laying the infrastructure to serve them. Over the past year, it rolled out 2,350 new mobile sites, bringing the total to 38,300, with 98.5% already running on 4G. Its fibre-optic network has grown by 4,000 kilometres to over 81,000 kilometres.

Then there’s also 5G. Airtel now has 1,700 live 5G sites across five countries — including Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda, Tanzania, and Zambia. In some of these markets, average data usage per customer has already reached 9 to 13 gigabytes per month, showing how quickly habits change once affordable high-speed internet is within reach.

Airtel Money: The Fintech Engine

The real headline, though, is mobile money. Airtel Money now has 49.8 million users, up 20% year-on-year. For perspective, that’s already larger than the number of active M-Pesa customers in Kenya (around 34 million).

The numbers are staggering: Airtel Money processed an annualised transaction value of 193 billion US dollars, up 36% from last year. Revenue from mobile money rose 30%, contributing more than 20% of total group revenue.

Airtel isn’t standing still. It’s adding savings, loans, merchant payments, and even virtual credit cards — over 180,000 of which have already been issued in Uganda and Tanzania.

To compare: MTN’s MoMo remains the biggest fintech platform on the continent with over 70 million users. Airtel Money is not there yet, but it’s clearly narrowing the gap.

Regional Growth Stories

• Nigeria: Airtel Africa’s largest market delivered 49% revenue growth (constant currency), with internet revenues up 62%. Smartphone penetration rose to 52.8%, and data usage per customer reached 10–13 GB a month.
• East Africa (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Zambia, Malawi): Revenue grew by almost 20%, with internet revenues up the same pace. More than 1,400 5G sites are live in this region alone, and smartphone penetration climbed to 43.7%.
• Francophone Africa (DRC, Gabon, Madagascar, Niger, Republic of Congo, Chad, Seychelles): Revenue grew 16%, with internet revenues up nearly 40%. More than 93% of sites are 4G-enabled, and smartphone penetration is just under 45% — a clear growth frontier.

Why This Matters

Safaricom’s dominance in Kenya isn’t going away any time soon. But on a continental scale, Airtel Africa is showing what happens when you combine smart investments in networks, aggressive data pricing, and a rapidly expanding fintech ecosystem.

The real contest to watch isn’t Safaricom versus Airtel in Kenya. It’s Airtel versus MTN across Africa — two giants now competing as much in financial services and digital platforms as in mobile connectivity.

If Airtel Africa keeps up this trajectory of nearly 50 million mobile money users, 174 million customers, and internet now bigger than voice — the balance of power in Africa’s telecoms and fintech markets could shift faster than many expect. Watch this space!