By Business Insider Reporter
For a telecommunications company, upgrading thousands of network sites might sound like a purely technical exercise. At Vodacom Tanzania, however, the latest network transformation is telling a bigger story.
A story in which better connectivity is also producing a smaller carbon footprint, deeper financial inclusion and wider access to the digital economy.
The numbers are striking. Vodacom Tanzania cut its carbon emissions by 24 percent in the year ended March 31, 2026, reducing emissions from 24,285.6 tonnes to 18,445.5 tonnes. Diesel consumption fell by the same 24 percent, from 8.6 million litres to 6.6 million litres.
Behind those reductions was not a stand-alone sustainability campaign, but something more fundamental: modernisation of the network itself.
Within seven months, Vodacom replaced outdated radio communication equipment at 1,808 sites. At the same time, 169 sites previously outside the national electricity grid were connected to it, reducing reliance on diesel-powered generators.
The impact is particularly clear at the company’s Kwale data centre. Increasing grid capacity from 11kVA to 33kVA reduced generator use from 18 hours a day to just two – an 88 percent reduction in diesel consumption at the facility.
“These environmental achievements have come from getting the core engineering right, rather than from a separate sustainability project,” says Andrew Lupembe, Vodacom Tanzania’s Director of Network Infrastructure.
That is perhaps the most important message in the company’s latest ESG performance.
Sustainability is increasingly becoming embedded in the economics and engineering of the telecoms business. When a network becomes more efficient, the benefits extend beyond the environment: fuel consumption falls while network performance and customer experience improve.
For Vodacom, the scale is significant. Its network now extends across more than 3,800 sites, including 2,190 in rural areas, consuming approximately 169.5 GWh of electricity annually. Base stations account for 78.9 percent of that consumption.
The company invested TSh3.5 billion in energy efficiency during the year and achieved 18,340 MWh in energy savings – more than six times the 2,861 MWh saved in 2025. Renewable energy accounted for 57 percent of total energy consumption.
From connectivity to participation
The greener network is only one part of the transformation. The more important question is what the infrastructure enables.
Vodacom ended the year with 27.7 million customers on its network, while 4G coverage reached 76.3 percent of the population following the launch of Tanzania’s first 5G service. Smartphone ownership reached 46.7 percent, with 325,415 customers obtaining devices through retail lending partnerships.
Yet digital inclusion cannot be measured simply by smartphone ownership.
For people without smartphones, Vodacom has introduced an AI-enabled digital service allowing access to internet-based assistance through SMS and voice calls. The initiative seeks to extend digital access to communities where smartphone ownership remains limited.
The same infrastructure is increasingly becoming a platform for financial participation.
M-Pesa served 14.1 million customers through financial-inclusion services, while M-Koba, Vodacom’s digital savings-group platform, reached 299,420 active groups. Total savings through the platform increased by 81 percent.
This is where the telecoms story begins to merge with the broader economic story. A mobile network is no longer simply a channel for calls and messages. It is becoming infrastructure through which people save, access information and participate in the formal economy.
The human dividend
The social dimension reinforces the point. Vodacom Tanzania Foundation reached 2.9 million beneficiaries, while a partnership with the Tanzania Institute of Education removed data charges from the national teachers’ professional-development platform, giving 121,832 teachers access to learning resources without data costs.
The company also supported the planting of 80,000 indigenous trees in Kahe 2 Forest on Mount Kilimanjaro.
Meanwhile, Vodacom recorded its 14th consecutive year without a workplace fatality, while the first phase of its network modernisation programme involved 411 employees travelling more than 1.7 million kilometres without a fatality or major incident.
“Behind every connection is a life being changed,” says Philip Besiimire, Vodacom Tanzania’s Chief Executive Officer. That may ultimately be the most useful way to view Vodacom’s ESG performance. The real measure of a telecommunications network is not simply how many people it connects, but what that connection enables.
