IFC has provided new financing to three of Airtel Africa plc’s subsidiaries with the aim of bringing high-speed mobile connectivity to more than 37 million subscribers in sub-Saharan Africa.

IFC’s $200 million loan will support the expansion and modernization of Airtel Africa’s network, as well as further investment into its distribution infrastructure, with a continued focus on rural areas.

Across Africa, approximately 600 million people lack access to 4G mobile coverage. In many countries across sub-Saharan Africa, the availability of mobile internet, and network performance, are below regional averages.

Despite this connectivity gap, up to 86 percent of firms on the continent use mobile phones for business operations, according to IFC’s recent report on digital connectivity in Africa. IFC’s financing is intended to help close this gap.

The new financing will take the form of a sustainability-linked loan, with key performance indicators related to the main pillars of Airtel Africa’s sustainability strategy: digital connectivity focused on smartphone adoption rates, financial inclusion for women, and gender balance within Airtel Africa’s own management team.

These three metrics will contribute to bridging the digital divide in Africa and support the equitable distribution of economic opportunities, poverty reduction, and financial stability across the continent. Most of the financing package is denominated in local currency, which IFC is providing to reduce the impact of currency volatility.

“IFC’s partnership with Airtel is critical to expanding high-speed connectivity in Africa,” said Mary Porter Peschka, IFC’s Regional Director for Eastern Africa. “Better connectivity means more opportunity. Our work with Airtel will help millions more people not only to come online but also gain access to high-speed networks so that they can better leverage the digital economy opportunities.”

With limited banking infrastructure in East Africa, mobile network operators are, in many cases, the only providers of financial services for consumers in these markets. In particular, women are especially reliant on this form of mobile banking.

Increasing digital connectivity is therefore a way to increase financial and gender inclusion.

Airtel Africa intends to partner with local and regional financial institutions to further enhance the mobile money eco-system by providing additional financial services to all customers across the region, further enabling the economic empowerment of women.

Airtel Africa’s Group CEO, Sunil Taldar said: “The expansion of our network is critical to our ambition of bridging the digital divide across Africa. This ambition can only be unlocked through continued investment into the region, and we welcome the partnership with IFC to enable this and further support our sustainability strategy of transforming lives and building better futures for communities across Africa.”

IHS Nigeria, a subsidiary of IHS Towers, has formed a strategic partnership with Canadian-based energy company Jaza Energy, that will see Jaza install solar hubs at 250 towers in underserved areas of Nigeria.

Tower infrastructure company, said that the partnership will enable it to reduce the environmental footprint of its operations.

According to IHS, the hubs will provide clean energy to the towers, while the excess power generated by the solar panels at these hubs will be used to charge battery packs for local households and businesses, which it notes will reduce reliance on diesel generators.

Jaza Energy specializes in providing energy equipment and solutions, aimed at supporting homes and communities.

IHS has sought to reduce carbon emissions as part of its Project Green initiative.

The project aims to reduce kWh emissions intensity by approximately 50 percent by 2030.

The tower company has invested more than $200 million into the initiative over the past two years.

“This partnership with Jaza Energy complements this initiative, as we seek to integrate more solar solutions on our sites, and simultaneously help support local communities,” said Mohamad Darwish, CEO of IHS Nigeria.

“In this case, by helping Jaza Energy provide more local households with access to battery packs for domestic use, as substitutes for diesel-powered generators.”

Jaza Energy claims to have delivered more than three million solar battery swaps and reached more than 100,000 people in Tanzania and Nigeria with its clean energy solutions.

IHS said it expects the 250 hubs to help it achieve an emissions reduction of approximately 32,600 – 33,000 tonnes of CO2e over the seven-year agreement.

Last month, IHS Towers struck an agreement to renew and extend its Nigeria tower master lease agreements with MTN Nigeria until December 2032. The contract renewal covers approximately 13,500 tenancy contracts.

The GSMA has launched the first industry-wide Responsible AI (RAI) Maturity Roadmap to provide telecoms operators with the tools and guidance to test and assess their responsible use of the technology.

Recognising that the overall opportunity derived from the expanded use of AI within the telecoms sector is estimated by McKinsey to be as high as $680 billion over the next 15-20 years, the GSMA is uniting the industry in using the technology ethically and responsibly – the first time a whole sector has committed to a common approach to AI.

The roadmap, developed based on insights by McKinsey and a group of operators, will allow telecoms organisations to assess where they currently stand in terms of their existing maturity in using AI responsibly against where they want to go, i.e. their ambitions and needs. It then provides clear guidance and measurement tools to help fulfil those ambitions, while ensuring industry-wide best practice in the responsible use of the technology.

Its development follows the well-established commitments of many mobile network operators (MNOs) to ensure the exploration and integration of AI within their work has been and is done in ethical and responsible ways.

Following extensive industry consultation, the GSMA has taken these approaches and combined them with existing global regulations, recommendations and standards from international organisations including the OECD, and the UNESCO Recommendation on the Ethics of AI to create a roadmap for the whole industry to align on the use of RAI.

This initiative has been championed by Axiata, Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telefónica and Telstra. Nineteen MNOs have already committed to using the roadmap as a way of tracking, maintaining and improving their responsible use of AI. Full details of all the MNOs already using it are available in the notes to editors.

Best-practice principles

The RAI Maturity Roadmap is underpinned by five core underlying dimensions: the vision, values and strategic goals of an organisation; its operating model and how to maintain AI governance across all operations; technical controls aligned with regulatory requirements; collaboration with third-party ecosystems; as well as corporate change management and communication strategies.

For each of these dimensions, the roadmap will guide organisations to take the appropriate steps to use AI responsibly relative to their level of maturity.

It also builds on well-established best-practice principles, including: fairness; human agency and oversight; privacy and security; safety and robustness; transparency; accountability; and environmental impact.

By providing greater clarity and a common approach to the responsible use of AI, the GSMA’s industry roadmap will give MNOs the confidence to commit to its adoption in the knowledge they are doing so in established, agreed and ethical ways, and therefore unlock the technology’s full value more quickly.

Mats Granryd, Director General of the GSMA, said: “The transformative potential of AI has long been apparent but its integration in our work and our lives must be done in a responsible and transparent way for it to be truly effective and sustainable. This roadmap will now empower more MNOs to embrace AI in the knowledge they, in line with the whole sector, are doing so responsibly and ethically.

“Responsible AI is the right way to explore and unlock the many opportunities the technology presents, and the telecoms industry is proud to lead the way as the first sector to commit to this approach – we hope others will follow our example.”

José María Álvarez-Pallete López, GSMA Board Chair and Chairman & CEO of Telefónica, said: “The speed with which AI has now become a central part of tech and telecoms operations demonstrates its power and undoubted value, but also the risks we must consider as an industry and the need to include ethics at the heart of AI to prevent its uncontrolled development.

“It is crucial for us all to ensure responsible guidelines for the use of AI are implemented now, and it is great to see the telecoms industry leading the way on this with the GSMA’s new roadmap.”