Progress update against our targets in 2025/26

Rolling out retail and support centres for new users in rural settings

Bringing our network within reach is only the first step. Customers also need local points of support where they can access help and learn how to use our services.

In 2025/26, we continued to expand our distribution footprint across urban, semi-urban and rural areas. Our total data customer base grew by 14.8% year on year, reaching 84.2 million data customers. A key driver of this was the 32.8% increase in the number of outlets. As of 31 March 2026, we have more than 520,000 outlets across 14 markets.

Furthermore, this year, more than 46% of our new customers come from communities outside urban areas, and our rural customer-activating outlets grew to 208,000 as of 31 March 2026, up from 154,000 in 2024/25.

We also scaled our directly owned retail stores from 592 in 2024/25 to 741 in 2025/26, improving our service to high value customers and providing an opportunity to promote HBB. Our frontline sales teams are supported by data-led tools, including analytics, next-best-action recommendations and performance dashboards, to ensure seamless customer care at the point of purchase and beyond.

Increasing customer access to the full range of our digital services

Smartphones unlock the full breadth of our digital services but affordability remains the biggest barrier across our markets. Africa's smartphone penetration stands at around 32.9%, well below the global average of 68.3%^†. This is why we focus on bringing 4G-enabled devices within the reach of more customers.

Across our customer base smartphone penetration reached 49.5% as of 31 March 2026, up from 44.8% in 2024/25, a meaningful step forward driven by a combination of network investment, partnerships with OEM handset manufacturers and targeted subsidy programmes.

In addition to smartphones, affordable and reliable home internet is becoming increasingly important for digital participation – for education, employment, financial services and daily life. We’ve continued to scale our HBB offering across all 14 markets this year, unlocking significant growth opportunities through our expanding 5G and fibre networks.

Our HBB customer base reached 0.9 million in 2025/26, representing growth of more than 85% on the previous year. We achieved this by significantly scaling up HBB sales and installation, expanding both our retail experience stores and our direct sales force in key urban areas.

We also fully digitised our sales and installation operations: from customer order through to installation, our processes are now end-to-end digital, improving both efficiency and customer experience. All new customers are onboarded via MyAirtel app, driving greater engagement from the moment of connection.

Promoting convenient payment solutions for 24/7 access to our digital services

Accessible, trusted payment solutions are essential to sustained digital participation. MyAirtel app is our primary platform for self-service, financial management and digital engagement across our 14 markets.

In 2025/26, we redesigned the app to deliver a simpler, more intuitive customer experience, integrating mobile money services so customers can manage self-recharge, make payments and access digital financial services from a single platform. As of 31 March 2026, transactions on MyAirtel app reached $8.3 billion, an 80% increase compared to the previous year. We also reached 10.5 million monthly active users, with 30.4% of mobile money smartphone users using the MyAirtel app, up from 21.0% last year. 

We continue to scale our spam alert services across our markets, blocking approximately 62 million fraudulent SMS messages per month in real time. Where customers don't trust digital services, they don't use them – and protecting our customers from fraud is inseparable from our commitment to digital inclusion.