{"id":80893,"date":"2026-06-11T07:17:30","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T06:17:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/2026\/06\/11\/airtel-africa-publishes-sustainability-report-2026\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T16:56:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T15:56:15","slug":"airtel-africa-publishes-sustainability-report-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/2026\/06\/11\/airtel-africa-publishes-sustainability-report-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Airtel Africa publishes Sustainability Report 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Airtel Africa, a leading provider of telecommunications and mobile money services across 14 African countries, has published its Sustainability Report 2026, highlighting progress in expanding connectivity, advancing financial inclusion and supporting sustainable growth across its footprint during the 2025\/26 reporting period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Sustainability Report 2026 demonstrates how Airtel Africa\u2019s investments in digital infrastructure, mobile financial services and strategic partnerships continue to transform lives and create opportunities for underserved communities across sub-Saharan Africa. It also details the company\u2019s ongoing transition to renewable energy sources and its approach to responsible business practices, environmental stewardship and transparent sustainability reporting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Airtel Africa Chief Executive Officer, Sunil Taldar, said: \u201cAcross Africa, access to connectivity, financial services and digital education is increasingly essential to economic opportunity. At Airtel Africa, we are expanding access to these services for millions of people, particularly in underserved and rural communities. This year, we continued to grow network coverage, smartphone adoption and Airtel Money services, while strengthening partnerships that extend our impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cSustainability remains embedded in how we operate and grow our business. By improving energy efficiency and reducing reliance on diesel, we are strengthening operational resilience while supporting long-term sustainable growth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">ESG Highlights for 2025\/26<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Expanding connectivity and bridging the digital divide<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Population covered by the mobile network reached 81.9% (81.2% in 2024\/25), while rural population coverage increased to 73.1% across the Group\u2019s footprint (72.2% in 2024\/25).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Data customer penetration increased to 45.9% (44.2% in 2024\/25).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Smartphone penetration rose to 49.5% (44.8% in 2024\/25), supporting broader access to internet-enabled services and digital platforms.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Transactions through the MyAirtel app grew to US$8.3 billion, representing an 80% increase year-on-year, while monthly active users reached 10.5 million.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Driving financial inclusion and economic participation<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Airtel Money customer base grew to more than 54 million users (44.6 million in 2024\/25).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Women accounted for 44.1% of Airtel Money customers (44.2% in 2024\/25).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Airtel Money processed transactions worth approximately US$196 billion during 2025\/26 (US$136 billion in 2024\/25).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Supporting education, skills and employment opportunities<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Airtel Money agent network expanded to 2.4 million agents (1.7 million in 2024\/25), supporting entrepreneurship, employment opportunities and access to essential financial services.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Airtel Africa continued to strengthen gender representation across the Group, with women representing 29.9% of the workforce (29.2% in 2024\/25).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>As of 31 March 2026, 3,043 schools had been connected to the internet free of charge through the Airtel Africa Foundation\u2019s partnership with UNICEF (2,176 in 2024\/25).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Minimising the environmental impact of operations<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>More than 950 infrastructure sites were converted from off-grid to on-grid power (500 in 2024\/25), reducing reliance on diesel generators.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Diesel consumption was reduced by 9.1 million litres during the year.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>94% of total waste generated was recycled (93% in 2024\/25).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The Sustainability Report 2026 has been prepared in accordance with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Standards and the GSMA telecommunications industry disclosures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Airtel Africa, a leading provider of telecommunications and mobile money services across 14 African countries, has published its Sustainability Report 2026, highlighting progress in expanding connectivity, advancing financial inclusion and supporting sustainable growth across its footprint during the 2025\/26 reporting period. The Sustainability Report 2026 demonstrates how Airtel Africa\u2019s investments in digital infrastructure, mobile financial [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7289,"featured_media":80894,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16131,399,260,382,262],"tags":[13317,20526],"class_list":["post-80893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-africa","category-more-news","category-regional-news-newsletter","category-telecom","category-used","tag-airtel-africa","tag-sustainability-report-2026"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7289"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80893"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80893\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81072,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80893\/revisions\/81072"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}