Airtel Uganda has raised its dividend payout by 41.5 percent to Sh0.41 per share (USh11.15) for the year ending December 2025 from Sh0.28 (USh7.88) a year earlier, after its profit grew by a similar margin on higher revenue from data sales.
The telco, which is listed on the Uganda Securities Exchange (USE) and includes Kenyan investors among its shareholders, reported a 41 percent growth in net profit to Sh16 billion (USh466.86 billion).
Its top line revenue was up 13.3 percent to Sh80.75 billion (USh2.25 trillion), as its data revenue grew 22.4 percent year-on-year to Sh36.2 billion (USh1.01 trillion) to surpass voice as the biggest revenue source of the company.
The company maintains a dividend policy of paying out a minimum of 95 percent of net profits to shareholders, with the distributions made on quarterly basis.
“The board of directors of Airtel Uganda, at the meeting held on February 20, 2026 recommended, for approval by the shareholders, a final dividend of Ush142 billion (Sh5.09 billion) amounting to Ush3.55 per share for the year ended 31 December 2025,” said the company in its financial report.
“With this, the total dividend for the twelve months’ period ended 31 December 2025 amounts to USh 11.15 (Sh0.41) per share, equating to a total of USh446 billion (Sh16 billion).
The telco is among a number of Ugandan firms that have in recent years attracted Kenyan equities investors seeking steady dividend returns, with the recent IPOs on the company and its local rival MTN Uganda offering a quick route to the market.
A number of Kenyan listed firms are also cross-listed on the Uganda Securities Exchange (USE), including Centum Investment Company, KCB Group, Equity Group, EABL, Kenya Airways and Nation Media Group.
When it listed in November 2023, Airtel Uganda became the fourth telco to go public in the East Africa region, joining MTN Uganda (2021), Safaricom on the Nairobi Securities Exchange (2008) and Vodacom Tanzania Ltd on the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange in 2017.
The listings of the Ugandan pair followed a directive by the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) to foreign-owned telcos to reserve at least 20 percent of shares to locals and East Africans in order to spur local ownership of the telecoms industry.
