Safaricom switched another 596 of its base stations to solar power in the year to March 2026, bringing the number of network sites running on clean energy to 2,028, as the telco seeks to cut its exposure to diesel prices that have hit record highs in Kenya.

The figures are contained in the company's 2026 Sustainable Business Report, its 15th, which covers the financial year from April 2025 to March 2026 and was launched in Nairobi this week.

Solar push against diesel

According to the Daily Nation, the solar sites now account for 35.7 per cent of Safaricom's masts. Diesel's share of the company's operating costs fell slightly to 3.2 per cent from 3.5 per cent the year before, and diesel use dropped 3.7 per cent to about 10.08 million litres, according to a breakdown by tech site TechWeez.

About 800 sites also received lithium-ion batteries and modern rectifiers. Even so, the grid still supplies 78 per cent of the network's energy, with diesel at 17 per cent, and total electricity use rose to about 274,531 megawatt-hours. The company is targeting 5,000 solar sites and 95 per cent green energy by 2030.

The push comes as pump prices in Kenya sit at record levels of about Sh226 a litre, driven by global oil price pressure linked to the conflict in the Middle East. Emissions from Safaricom's Kenyan operations still rose 9.1 per cent, while its Ethiopian unit cut emissions by 31 per cent.

Fraud and cyber attacks

The report shows Safaricom dismissed 118 employees in fraud-related cases, up from 113 the previous year. The company says fraud incidents fell 82 per cent against a 90 per cent target and that it recovered 46 per cent of reported losses, with in-person social engineering the biggest source of losses.

Its security systems detected about 1.25 billion intrusion attempts and investigated more than 130,000 security events during the year, with no confirmed material breaches reported. The firm now masks sender details on M-Pesa transfers, showing two names and a partly hidden phone number, a change covering more than 40 million subscribers.

Sh1.25 trillion in value

Safaricom says its activities created about Sh1.247 trillion in value for Kenyan society, 10 per cent more than the year before. That includes Sh654 billion in direct economic impact and Sh478.1 billion in social value from M-Pesa. It says its ecosystem supports more than 1.4 million jobs.

Other figures in the report:

  • M-Pesa processed 46.41 billion transactions worth Sh41.68 trillion, with 41.7 million monthly active users
  • Fuliza borrowers rose to 18.1 million, from 7 million
  • The Ziidi investment product holds Sh21.1 billion for 2.2 million investors
  • 5G now covers about 30 per cent of the population, from 1,879 sites

Chief executive Peter Ndegwa said the company does not see the report as charity work. "For us, sustainability is not philanthropy; it is not a report we produce once a year," he said at the launch.

Photos: Wilberforce Okwiri / The Standard; Nairobi123 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). Thumbnail design: HAMASTA MEDIA.