Top 10 IT/ICT and Telecom Companies by Revenue in Africa in 2025

In Summary

• Africa’s ICT and telecom sector surpassed $100 billion in combined annual revenues by 2025, driven by expanding broadband access, mobile money adoption, and digital infrastructure investments.
• MTN, Vodacom, and Safaricom, lead the continent’s digital transformation, while infrastructure firms like Liquid Intelligent Technologies anchor connectivity through fibre, cloud, and tower networks.
• World Bank 2024/2025 reports link Africa’s projected 3.5% GDP growth to ICT expansion, showing how telecoms and digital platforms are reshaping economies, and enabling financial inclusion.

Deep Dive!!

Africa’s digital era is rapidly maturing, and by 2025 the continent hosts a cohort of ICT and telecom firms whose scale, resilience, and innovation define its technology backbone. Supported by initiatives like the World Bank’s Digital Economy for Africa (DE4A), expansion in broadband access (from 26% in 2019 to ~36% in recent years) is driving growth in data, mobile money, cloud, and enterprise connectivity across Sub-Saharan Africa. In this context, telcos are no longer just providers of voice and SMS—they are digital platforms, financial rails, and infrastructure owners.

Within this evolving landscape, the Top 10 IT/ICT & Telecom Companies by Revenue in Africa in 2025 reflect both legacy scale and transformational growth. These firms span mobile operators (with expanding fintech arms), pan-African digital infrastructure (towercos, data centres, fibre), systems integrators, and platform innovators. Their revenue footprints, investment trajectories, and cross-border reach reveal how Africa’s tech sector is stepping out of commodity shadows into infrastructure and services leadership.

This article profiles each of these ten leading firms through their 2024/2025 financials, strategic shifts, and structural challenges. By comparing metrics like service revenue, EBITDA, segment mix, and growth drivers, we explore how they compete amid currency volatility, infrastructure gaps, and rising digital demand. The aim is not simply to rank them by turnover, but to decode the narratives through which Africa’s ICT powerhouses are shaping the continent’s digital future.

10. EOH / iOCO (South Africa)

EOH / iOCO is one of South Africa’s longest-standing enterprise IT services platforms, freshly restructured and rebranded as iOCO Limited in 2025. The group delivers systems integration, managed services, cybersecurity, data & cloud, application development, and outsourcing to large corporates and the public sector. After a multi-year clean-up and portfolio rationalisation, FY-2024 group revenue came in at approximately R6.0 billion (continuing operations), with services contributing the bulk of turnover, setting a realistic base for its 2025 reset.

Early 2025 numbers point to operational traction: for the six months to 31 Jan 2025, revenue of R2.73 billion (-6.4% YoY) translated into gross profit of R823 million (+2.8% YoY) as mix and execution improved; EBITDA surged 159% to R252 million and the group swung to R123 million interim profit, its first profitable first half in three years. Management highlighted healthier margins (gross margin up to ~30% and operating margin up to approximately 7.8%) and stronger cash generation from operations, signalling that the cost-reset and contract pruning are flowing through to earnings quality.

Strategically, iOCO has focused on a “quality-over-quantity” book, exiting low-margin lines, deleveraging, and concentrating on higher-value solutions (cloud, security, data, application modernisation) for blue-chip clients across South Africa and select international markets. A September 2025 trading statement guided for operating-profit growth of approximately 260–285% for FY-2025, underscoring momentum from the streamlined portfolio and improved execution. This repositioning aims to stabilise revenue while compounding profitability, critical in a market where procurement cycles are long and public-sector budgets are tight.

From a macro lens, the World Bank’s Africa outlook and digital-economy agenda provide a supportive backdrop: Sub-Saharan Africa’s growth is projected to edge up to approximately 3.5% in 2025, while programs under the Digital Economy for Africa (DE4A) and regional digital-inclusion initiatives target scaled broadband, cloud, cybersecurity, and public-service digitalisation, areas aligned with iOCO’s core capabilities. As governments and enterprises accelerate digital transformation and data-infrastructure investments, resilient local integrators like iOCO are positioned to capture spend in cloud migration, secure networking, and mission-critical systems.

9. Altron (South Africa)

Altron (JSE: AEL) is a South African digital-technology group whose portfolio spans Platforms (notably Netstar telematics and FinTech), Digital/IT Services, and Security. After several years of portfolio clean-up (including the sale of the ATM business), Altron entered FY-2025 with a simpler, higher-margin mix focused on annuity revenue and enterprise clients across SA and select international markets. Management’s FY-2025 commentary frames the strategy around “quality of revenue,” operational leverage, and cash generation, key levers for a services-led ICT leader in a volatile macro environment.

Financially, Altron delivered a sharp profitability upswing in the year ended 28 Feb 2025: operating profit from continuing operations rose 50% to R972m, while EBITDA increased 27% to R1.8bn. Group revenue from continuing operations was approximately R9.6bn, essentially flat year-on-year due to the ATM disposal; adjusted for that sale, revenue grew by 3%, underpinned by 10% annuity growth and a 2-ppt gross-margin expansion to 40%. The Board declared a 50c final dividend, up 52% year-on-year, reflecting confidence in earnings quality and cash generation.

By segment, Platforms remained the key profit engine, led by Netstar (connected-vehicle telematics) and FinTech platforms, while Digital/IT services (including cloud, application modernisation and managed services) benefited from contract pruning and mix improvement. External coverage highlights the Platforms segment’s outperformance in FY-2025 as a primary driver of group margin gains, consistent with management guidance to prioritise scalable, IP-rich businesses over low-margin legacy lines.

The macro backdrop is tentatively supportive. The World Bank projects Sub-Saharan Africa growth at approximately 3.5% in 2025, with digital-economy programs (e.g., DE4A) accelerating public-sector digitalisation, cloud adoption, cybersecurity and data-platform spend, areas aligned to Altron’s capabilities in platforms and enterprise IT services. As South African and regional clients modernise infrastructure and applications, Altron’s higher-margin mix, annuity base, and balance-sheet discipline position it to convert modest top-line growth into outsized earnings leverage in 2025 and beyond.

8. Liquid Intelligent Technologies (Pan-African)

Liquid Intelligent Technologies, a subsidiary of Cassava Technologies, is emerging as one of Africa’s digitally-native infrastructure champions by 2025. The company operates an expansive fibre backbone spanning more than 700,000 km across the continent, a pan-African cloud business (branded C2), multiple data centres, and partnerships in satellite communications. In FY 2024/25, the firm reported approximately $693.5 million in total revenue, reflecting robust demand in Rest-of-Africa markets which helped counterbalance adverse foreign-exchange movements.

Growth across its core markets, Eastern, Central, and Southern Africa, has been strong as enterprise, telco, and government clients increasingly switch to higher bandwidth, cloud, and colocation services. The fibre business remains the revenue backbone, but Liquid has steadily expanded its cloud (C2) offerings and data centre footprint in Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. These expansions allow more of the value chain to be retained in-market rather than outsourced overseas. The company’s integrated “fibre + cloud + data centre” model provides a compelling, locally controlled alternative to global hyperscalers in Africa.

Despite this growth, Liquid continues to manage significant challenges tied to foreign exchange volatility, regulatory uncertainty, and high capital expenditure. Many of its contracts are denominated in local currencies or U.S. dollars depending on the country, which means that depreciation in local currencies has periodically eroded margins. Furthermore, building data centres and fibre infrastructure in emerging markets involves heavy upfront investment and long payback periods, making cash flow management critical. Management has emphasized “FX hedging, disciplined capital deployment, and strategic partnerships (especially in satellite backhaul)” as key mitigants in its latest operational updates.

From a continental ICT ranking viewpoint, Liquid Intelligent Technologies stands out as an infrastructure-led, pan-African enterprise with both scale and ambition. Its approximately $693 million revenue puts it among the top tier in African ICT, particularly given that it is purely focused on digital infrastructure and services rather than legacy telecom operations. With digital transformation accelerating across Africa, governments and businesses pushing cloud migration, and cross-border data traffic rising, Liquid is well positioned to benefit from the growing demand for sovereign, high-performance infrastructure across the continent.

7. IHS Holding (Pan-African)

IHS Holding (also known as IHS Towers) is a leading pan-African tower infrastructure (towerco) player whose FY 2024 results and recent performance underscore both its scale and sensitivity to macro challenges. The company reported full-year revenue of $1,711.2 million, with LTM revenue of approximately $1,731 million, reflecting modest growth in local operations offset by foreign exchange volatility.

Operationally, IHS towers’ portfolio comprises more than 39,000 towers across eight countries, giving it a broad footprint in African telecommunications infrastructure. Nigeria remains its single largest contributor: in 2024, 58.3 % of the company’s revenue originated from Nigeria, and two major MNOs, MTN Nigeria and Airtel Nigeria, together accounted for 57 % of the total revenue.

In Q1 2025, IHS posted $439.6 million in revenue, a 5.2 % year-on-year increase, driven by organic growth in tenants, lease amendments, and new sites, which helped offset currency depreciation pressures. Its adjusted EBITDA margins have remained robust, supported by disciplined cost management, relatively stable power and maintenance costs, and value extracted from tower colocation and incremental services.

However, the company’s concentration risks and currency sensitivity remain key challenges. Heavy reliance on a few anchor customers in a single market (Nigeria) makes IHS vulnerable to regulatory shifts, telecom operator financial stress, and FX devaluations. To mitigate these, IHS has engaged in portfolio rationalization, reviewing tower holdings in smaller markets, and doubling down on operational efficiency and lease-amendment revenue growth in core markets.

In a ranking of Africa’s top IT/ICT & telecom revenue firms for 2025, IHS stands out as the dominant digital infrastructure play: its revenue scale, infrastructure ownership, and leverage in communications ecosystems position it near the top of towerco and ICT asset portfolios.

6. Telkom SA (South Africa)

In the financial year ended 31 March 2025, Telkom SA reported group revenue of R 43.88 billion, marking a 3.3 % increase over the prior year. Growth was driven by strong performance in mobile services (up 10.2 %) and fibre-related data revenues, both of which outpaced declines in legacy lines. Telkom’s adjusted EBITDA rose 25.1 % to R 11.79 billion, with the EBITDA margin expanding to 26.9 %, reflecting tighter cost discipline and improved revenue mix.

Telkom’s turnaround was further evidenced by its resumption of dividend payments, after a multi-year hiatus. The company declared a total dividend payout of R 1.3 billion, combining an ordinary dividend of 163 cents per share with a special dividend of 98 cents per share, spurred in part by its disposal of the Swiftnet mast/tower business. This asset sale yielded R6.575 billion in proceeds and helped deleverage the balance sheet, enhancing financial flexibility.

On the operational front, Telkom is increasingly riding on its data-led strategy. Its Openserve division (fibre / wholesale infrastructure) posted fibre data revenue growth of ~5.9 %, with a homes-passed base of 1.38 million and a connectivity rate reaching 50.4 %, arguably among the highest in South Africa’s open access infrastructure. Telkom’s consumer and mobile units also expanded, with mobile external revenue rising and data subscriber growth of ~19.5 % to reach 15.2 million users. In its 2025 results and investor commentary, management highlighted network simplification, energy transformation, and structural cost optimization as key levers enabling margin expansion even under top-line pressure.

From a ranking perspective, Telkom’s 2025 performance justifies its inclusion among Africa’s largest telecom / ICT enterprises. While its revenue base (R 43.9 billion) is smaller than pan-African giants like MTN or Vodacom, Telkom’s improved margins, resumed shareholder returns, and increasingly digital / data-centric portfolio position it as one of the more dynamic turnaround stories in the African telecom sector. As demand for high-bandwidth connectivity, enterprise digital services, and wholesale infrastructure accelerates, Telkom is well placed to convert its improved financial footing into sustained growth in the 2025–2028 period.

5. Datatec

Datatec Limited is a leading global ICT solutions group headquartered in South Africa, operating across technology distribution. In its fiscal year ending 28 February 2025, Datatec reported $3,639.7 million in group revenue, despite headwinds in mix and currency. The group also delivered adjusted EBITDA of USD 246.2 million, reflecting improved profitability and operating leverage across its divisions.

Despite a revenue decline of about 8.8%, largely attributable to mix shift toward software and services from lower-margin hardware distribution, Datatec’s gross profit rose by ~5.6% year over year, aided by margin expansion in Westcon and Logicalis segments. The company also significantly reduced net debt, dropping approximately 57.7% from R2.2 billion to R934 million, strengthening its balance sheet and improving cash conversion. Analyst commentary supports that all divisions delivered growth in adjusted EBITDA, and underlying EPS rose sharply.

Operationally, Datatec is balancing a transformation: scaling higher-value, annuity services while optimizing its distribution legacy. Its divisions, Westcon and Logicalis, continue to adapt to global supply chain normalization and increased enterprise demand for hybrid infrastructure. The group’s strategic focus on improving operational efficiency, aligning vendor partnerships, and capturing software & services growth is central to its recovery and margin expansion.

In the 2025 ranking of Africa’s top IT/ICT & telecom revenue firms, Datatec stands out as one of the few African-based groups with a truly global footprint. Its approximately $3.64 billion revenue places it among the continent’s largest technology operators. Though challenged by mix and exchange rate pressures, the improving profitability, deleveraging, and strategic repositioning toward higher-margin solutions justify its inclusion in the top tier of the African ICT ecosystem in 2025.

4. Safaricom PLC (Kenya)

In FY 2025 (year ended March), Safaricom PLC delivered a strong performance with total revenue of KES 388.7 billion, marking an 11.2 % year-on-year increase, while service revenue rose by 10.8 % to KES 371.4 billion.

This growth was powered largely by mobile service lines, where mobile data revenue soared approximately 16.5 % to KES 78.5 billion, and M-PESA revenue climbed approximately 15.1 % to KES 161.1 billion, now contributing approximately 41.5 % of group revenue.

On profitability, Safaricom’s operating profit (EBIT) surged 29.5 % to KES 104.1 billion, while net income (excluding minority interests) increased by 10.8 %, to KES 69.8 billion. The company also crossed the $3 billion revenue threshold for the first time, reflecting stronger conversion of domestic scale into regional prominence.

Strategically, Safaricom is pivoting from being a telecom operator to a broader technology platform dominates its revenue mix. As Ethiopia operations begin to stabilize (with losses narrowing), the Kenyan business remains the main profit engine. In the context of Africa’s top IT/ICT & telecom companies in 2025, Safaricom exemplifies how telcos with robust digital and fintech arms can lead in both revenue scale and innovation.

3. Telecom Egypt (Egypt)

Telecom Egypt demonstrated a breakthrough performance in FY 2024, with total revenue rising 45% year-on-year to reach EGP 82 billion. EBITDA mirrored this growth, expanding 45% and sustaining a healthy approximately 40% margin, underscoring both top-line strength and cost discipline. The net profit, however, was dampened by foreign exchange losses and other non-recurring charges, which tempered bottom-line growth despite robust operating performance.

The growth drivers were clearly tilted toward data and wholesale segments. Data revenue surged 48% YoY, becoming one of the principal engines of expansion and accounting for a substantial share of segment growth. On the wholesale side, revenues from international calls (IDD), domestic infrastructure services, and capacity sales saw steep gains, adding scale to Telecom Egypt’s connectivity and subsea ambitions. Meanwhile, its retail operations expanded as customer bases in mobile, fixed broadband, and fixed voice grew approximately 13%, 8%, and ~6% YoY, respectively, reflecting strong subscriber traction across service lines.

Strategically, Telecom Egypt has leveraged its fixed + mobile + subsea connectivity assets to consolidate its role as a regional data hub. The company continues to monetize its submarine cable infrastructure and expand capacity agreements overseas, reinforcing its status as a global connectivity gateway between Africa, Europe, and Asia. On the domestic front, the stabilized cost base and easing of inflation pressures have started to offer more predictable planning conditions, helping to insulate margins from macro volatility.

In a 2025 ranking of Africa’s top IT/ICT & telecom firms by revenue, Telecom Egypt stands out as a mature, integrated operator combining fixed, mobile, and wholesale data infrastructure. Its robust growth in data and wholesale, coupled with enhanced connectivity assets, makes it one of the leading North African tech players on the continent. As the Egyptian economy rebounds (with growth projected to edge up) and digitalization accelerates across MENA, Telecom Egypt is well positioned to convert its recent momentum into sustained performance among Africa’s telecom elite.

2. Vodacom Group (South Africa)

Vodacom Group occupies a prominent position among Africa’s largest telecom / ICT companies in 2025, anchored by its core connectivity business and growing digital services portfolio. For the year ended 31 March 2025, Vodacom reported group revenue of R152.2 billion, a modest 1.1 % increase in reported terms, despite significant foreign exchange headwinds. The company disclosed that on a “normalised basis” (i.e. adjusting for currency effects), service revenue growth reached 11.2 %, exceeding its medium-term targets.

Vodacom’s revenue mix is increasingly diversified beyond pure voice and data. Its financial services segment, led by Vodacom’s mobile money and fintech offerings (e.g. in Egypt and South Africa), grew 7.6 % to R14 billion, and now contributes about 11.6 % of the group’s service revenue base. Meanwhile, the group’s EBITDA declined slightly in reported terms (–1.1%), coming in at R55.5 billion, but it rose 7.8 % on a normalised basis after adjusting for FX distortions.

Operational scale remains a key strength for Vodacom. Over the past five years (to 2025), its customer base has expanded from ~115.5 million to 211.3 million, while its financial services users rose from 53.2 million to 87.7 million (including its share of Safaricom). The company’s Vision 2030 strategy has raised its ambitions: to grow its customer base to 260 million and financial services base to 120 million, and to shift “beyond-mobile” contribution to ~30 % (up from about 21 %) of service revenue.

In a continental IT/ICT & telecom ranking for 2025, Vodacom’s performance underscores why it sits near the top: it combines scale, platform diversification, and disciplined strategy amid challenging macro conditions. While currency volatility and regional economic pressures pose headwinds, Vodacom’s integrated retail, connectivity, and fintech operations provide resilience. Its pivot toward higher-margin digital and financial services, complemented by deep infrastructure in multiple African markets, positions it as one of the most capable and future-ready ICT players on the continent.

1. MTN Group (South Africa)

MTN Group remains a leading force in Africa’s telecom and ICT sector heading into 2025, undergirded by its vast footprint and evolving digital services strategy. In its FY 2024 results, MTN reported service revenue of R 177.8 billion, a 15.4 % decline in reported rand terms due largely to currency pressures, but a 13.8 % increase in constant-currency (CC) terms, reflecting resilient operations.

The decline in reported revenue masks deeper momentum in key growth segments. Data revenue fell 12.3 % in rand terms in FY 2024, but grew 21.9 % on a CC basis. Likewise, MTN’s fintech (MoMo) revenue continued to expand, up 11 % reported and approximately 29 % in CC terms, helped by growth in transaction volume and deeper embedding in consumer and merchant ecosystems.

In the first half of 2025, MTN posted a marked turnaround: service revenue rose 23.2 % to R 105.1 billion, driven by strong growth in data (36.5 %) and fintech (approximately 37.3 %) segments. EBITDA margins also improved, approaching 44.2 %, while headline earnings per share swung from a loss to 645 cents. This performance underscores both the power of MTN’s three-platform strategy (Connectivity | Fintech | Digital Infrastructure) and its capacity to leverage macro stability in key markets.

In ranking Africa’s top IT/ICT & telecom companies by revenue in 2025, MTN’s scale, cross-market presence, and digital evolution make it a benchmark. While currency volatility, especially in Nigeria, remains a constraint, MTN has shown resilience and adaptability: its focus on expense efficiency, deeper fintech monetization, and infrastructure upgrades positions it well to capture digital transformation waves across Africa in the years ahead.