Airtel Africa, a provider of telecommunications and mobile money services in 14 countries across Africa, has published its 2024 Sustainability Report.
The report highlights Airtel Africa’s progress across its key sustainability targets, including support for its people and communities, promoting financial and digital inclusion, and initiatives to reduce the environmental impact of its operations.
Segun Ogunsanya, Airtel Africa’s outgoing Group CEO, said: “I’m very proud of the strides Airtel Africa has made in advancing our sustainability goals. While targets are vital to driving change, our mission is much bigger: to transform people’s lives through connectivity, products and services fostering digital and financial inclusion while unlocking the potential of the next generation.”
The report shares progress highlights for the company’s four sustainability pillars: ‘Our business’, ‘Our people’, ‘Our community’ and ‘Our environment’.
Our business: Airtel Africa continued to expand telecommunications services, supporting economic growth and development across the continent. Key milestones include:
- Growing the customer base to 152.7 million across 14 markets
- Attaining ISO 27001 and ISO 22301 certifications which demonstrate Airtel Africa’s compliance with international standards and commitment to data privacy and security
- Expanding the 4G network and reaching 70.7% of the population in these markets, a 4.9% increase since 2022/23
- Introducing 5G services, now covering 4.14% of customers, primarily in urban areas
Our people: Airtel Africa is committed to creating a working environment where all employees can achieve their full potential. Key milestones include:
- Increasing workforce and leadership diversity, with 35.4% of new or open leadership roles filled by women, raising the representation of women in senior management to 22.3%, up from 19.5% the previous year
- Enhancing diversity and inclusion and advancing female talent through the ‘Women for technology’ programme which benefitted 54 high performing women and resulted in a 21% increase in internal promotions from this group as of 31 March 2024
- Investing $1.2m in training and development programme
Our community: Airtel Africa is transforming the lives of individuals, families and communities across Africa by building opportunities for better futures. Key milestones include:
- Driving financial inclusion for unbanked populations by growing Airtel Money’s customer base to 38 million people. This is particularly significant for the financial inclusion of women in Africa, who make up 38% of Airtel Money’s customers
- Advancing digital learning across Africa through the five-year $57m partnership with UNICEF, connecting almost 1,200 schools to the internet and providing free access to online educational platforms to thousands of students in 2023/24
Our environment: Airtel Africa is working to address and minimise the impact of the company’s operations on the environment. Key milestones include:
- Publishing the ‘Journey towards a net zero future’ in May 2023 which outlines the scenarios for the reduction of scope 1 and 2 emissions while setting out a near-term target to reduce emissions intensity by 62% from March 2022 baseline
- Announcing the scope 3 strategy in November 2023 which sets out the partners and suppliers’ engagement programme (PSEP) to further advance our engagement with the supply chain
- Launching our new multi-million data centre business, Nxtra by Airtel, in December 2023 and commencing construction of one of Africa’s largest data centres in Lagos, Nigeria, which will incorporate modern energy efficiencies to complement the ongoing work on reducing carbon emissions across existing sites
Airtel Africa’s Sustainability Report 2024 adheres to the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) framework and the GSMA’s recommendations for the telecommunications industry.