Progress against our strategy
Here we report progress against the six pillars of our strategy.
- We describe progress against our sustainability strategy in our Sustainability Report 2025 – see www.airtel.africa
- Our strategic delivery is underpinned by a clear risk management framework – see Managing our risk.
Progress against our strategy
Here we report progress against the six pillars of our strategy.
- We describe progress against our sustainability strategy in our Sustainability Report 2025 – see www.airtel.africa
- Our strategic delivery is underpinned by a clear risk management framework – see Managing our risk.
Strengthen ‘go-to-market’
We aim to leverage salesforce automation and technology to ensure high-quality customer acquisitions. We continue to build on our unique distribution network to increase our ability to reach and serve customers in all our markets by making our services visible and accessible.
Our priorities
- Strengthen our distribution network and reinforce execution
- Drive productivity through digitisation
- Enhance the customer’s experience through simplified digital customer onboarding processes, including the ‘Know your customer’ (KYC) process
- Broaden our value propositions to drive usage and ARPU
390,000+
activating outlets (+7.7% vs 2023/24)
166.1 million
total customer base (+8.7% vs 2023/24)
Brilliant network experience
We remain focused on delivering best-in-class services, enhancing our 4G network availability, expanding 5G across key markets and growing our fibre footprint. We continue to expand rural coverage through new site rollouts, investing in spectrum and new technology.
Our priorities
- Focus on rural coverage expansion through new site rollouts, expanding our reach to previously underserved communities
- Ensure 100% network availability of 4G coverage and build network capacity
- Invest in 5G spectrum to make our network future-ready
- Focus on our network resilience and service continuity
- Deploy digital network planning tools for optimal end-to-end design and network modernisation
Our progress
- Invested approximately $480m in our network infrastructure
- Added 3,300+ 4G sites and added approximately 3,300 km of fibre
- Increased 4G population coverage by 3.7% to reach 74.4%
37,117
total number of infrastructure sites
36,159
total number of 4G/5G sites
78,700+ km
of connecting fibre
Must win markets
We’ve identified clusters of opportunities across all OpCos as ‘must win markets’. We aim to win in every cluster by optimising our network and/or strengthening our distribution to ensure speed and precision in new customer acquisition.
Our priorities
- Undertake micro-marketing actions in urban areas, including smaller towns and emerging suburbs, to attract new customers and retain our existing base
- Improve coverage, expand distribution and address affordability in rural areas with low penetration of telecoms and financial services
Our progress
- Urban customer base growth of 6.2% following our focus on urban areas through capacity upgrades (TB/day), customer lifecycle management and near-real-time marketing
- We added over 850 sites in rural areas to expand coverage and strengthened our rural exclusive distribution infrastructure footprint. These efforts accelerated our rural customer base growth to 12.4%
Digitise and simplify
We’re focused on enhancing digital adoption and driving operational efficiencies to simplify customer journeys.
Our priorities
- Enhance digital accessibility, particularly, for customers in regions with limited connectivity
- Accelerate digital adoption and deliver best-in-class customer experience by creating simplified product journeys and seamless digital experience
- Streamline operations by adopting cutting-edge technologies
- Launch new digital engagement initiatives, including the creation of content inventory of gaming, video-on-demand and music
Our progress
- We simplified our product journeys, enhanced the digital interface and reduced transaction processing times, improving customer satisfaction and engagement
- We successfully piloted a simplified version of our customer app in one of the OpCos to enhance accessibility. The initiative is set to expand across all markets
- We launched the ‘Smarta with data’ campaign to help customers effectively manage their data usage and maximise value for money
7.1 million
customers using MyAirtel app (+81% vs 2023/24)
$4.8bn
transaction value on MyAirtel app (+62% vs 2023/24)
Accelerate Airtel Money
We aim to accelerate the adoption of Airtel Money across all regions, leveraging the success of our mobile money business model to expand financial access and inclusion.
Our priorities
- Accelerate growth by focusing on technology, leveraging services, using data science for segmentation and delivering a differentiated experience through USSD and our Airtel Money app
- Strengthen our distribution network by expanding kiosks and dedicated Airtel Money branches (AMBs), ensuring customers have reliable access to cash and float
- Expanding our mobile money portfolio and advancing enterprise and digital payments, including merchant payments, loans, insurance, saving accounts and virtual cards
Our progress
- Airtel Money scaled through strategic partnerships and awareness initiatives, positioning it as a preferred digital transaction platform
- 23% growth in Airtel Money agents, improving accessibility for our customers
- Strong growth in merchant and digital payments
- Advancing our fintech ecosystem with a platform-driven model, integrating digital lending and international remittances
- Investments in technology to enhance efficiency, security and compliance
44.6 million
Airtel Money customers
$994m
Airtel Money revenue (+29.9% in constant currency vs 2023/24)
$136bn
transaction value for Airtel Money (+32% in constant currency vs 2023/24)
Scale home broadband (HBB) and enterprise
We aim to unlock significant opportunities in HBB and enterprise by enhancing our 5G technology and fibre network. Leveraging our scale across the continent, we offer reliable and resilient capacity to the enterprise segment, aiming to meet the increased demand for digital services.
Our priorities
- Invest in network infrastructure to enable the acquisition of new customers and retention of existing customers
- Scale up sales capabilities to promote fast, precise customer acquisition
- Digitise and enhance customer experience across all customer service touchpoints from first purchase, including installation, service, recharge and relocation of service
Our progress
- We continued our investment in HBB network infrastructure with approximately 3,300 additional 4G/5G sites
- We put dedicated sales teams in place, extending reach beyond large format exclusive stores
- Digitised our customer onboarding and recharge processes with omni-channel checkout options
1.1 million
home broadband (HBB) customers
57%
home broadband (HBB) revenue growth
Brilliant network experience in action
Leveraging our fibre connections: Airtel Africa Telesonic
Demand for data is accelerating rapidly across our markets, and fibre connections are critical to meeting it – for both wholesale and retail customers. Airtel Africa Telesonic, our FibreCo, leverages this infrastructure to serve mobile operators, internet service providers, carriers and other wholesale providers. Our terrestrial network currently spans 78,700+ km, including vital cross-continental routes such as Muanda in the DRC to Mombasa in Kenya.
In 2024/25, we activated our fibre pair on the 2Africa submarine cable, enabling multi-terabit capacity between Djibouti, Kenya, Tanzania and South Africa. When complete, 2Africa will connect Africa to both Asia and Europe .
Game-changing innovation to meet customers’ needs: the Airtel AI spam alert service
Our success is built around improving every aspect of a customer’s experience – and we are committed to digital innovation that makes using our services simpler and more convenient while keeping customers safe and secure.
In March 2025, we launched the Airtel AI spam alert service, the first product of its kind in Africa. Developed by Airtel Africa to harness the power of artificial intelligence to protect our customers, it tackles customers’ concerns over high rates of spam messages and calls, which falsely claim to be from companies, government agencies and others, and are often the gateway to information theft and fraud.
Launched initially in our largest market, Nigeria, our innovative AI-powered solution analyses SMS messages without reading the content, filtering them through a proprietary dual-layer protection: one layer at the network level and the other at the IT systems level. It can process over 1.5 billion messages in 2 milliseconds.
At no cost to customers, the Airtel AI spam alert service identifies suspicious SMS messages as ‘suspected spam’ and sends real-time alerts to our customers who are automatically enrolled in the system with no requirement for additional application downloads. The software also alerts customers to malicious weblinks received by SMS.
Accelerate Airtel Money
Airtel Money: creating value through offers across the mobile money ecosystem
44.6 million
Airtel Money customers
$136bn
in transaction value for Airtel Money
Mobile money is rapidly becoming the preferred currency in sub-Saharan Africa. It’s driving financial inclusion and opening pathways to prosperity for millions of people and their economies. And Airtel Money is leading the way.
We’ve built an empowering, responsible Airtel Money ecosystem for customers to access a wide range of mobile money use cases – including through MyAirtel app. Partnerships with retail businesses and financial services providers have added even further momentum. The result is an Airtel Money business, serving 44.6 million customers, that grew transaction value by 32% in constant currency to $136bn in 2024/25.
17.3%
customer base growth
91%
Airtel money app transaction value growth
19 million
customers using P2P payments
33 million
customers buying airtime recharges
51%
growth in merchant and bill payments
54%
growth in local bank and international money transfer
2.0
ARPU (increasing 11.4% in constant currency)
32%
transaction value growth