Telecom sustainability reporting across Africa

It needs a traceable record of the energy and fuel behind each reported figure, the site or team responsible for it and the issues still awaiting review. A network-wide total is only defensible if every number in it can be followed back to the site record beneath it.

For most operators, that record is dominated by energy: diesel burned in generators at tower sites, electricity bought from the grid, and fuel for offices and vehicles. Those figures sit at the heart of the climate disclosures that IFRS S1 and S2 require, and they are where an assurer will look first.

Because many tower sites across Africa run on diesel generators for some or all of the day, where the grid is unreliable or absent. For an operator that runs those generators itself, the diesel they burn is often the largest single source of its direct emissions.

Diesel burned in generators the operator owns or controls is Scope 1; electricity bought from the grid is Scope 2. The two must be recorded separately, and fuel must be recorded as consumed, from the opening stock plus deliveries minus the closing stock, rather than as purchased. Emvert records fuel consumed by default, generator by generator.

Agree it before you collect the data. Where an independent tower company or energy service provider owns and runs the generators, their diesel may fall outside your Scope 1, depending on which company has control of the equipment under the boundary approach you have chosen.

Whatever the answer, record the decision, apply it consistently across every country you operate in, and note who supplies each site's data and when it is due. A clear boundary decision, written down in year one, saves a long argument with your assurer later.

Organise every record by site, reporting period, energy source, responsible team and evidence. That structure lets a central team follow completion across thousands of locations, in several countries, without losing the detail needed to check an individual site.

Diesel delivery and consumption logs, generator run-hour records and electricity bills can be uploaded or imported by spreadsheet. Each site's emissions are calculated with the grid factor for the country it is in, so a group operating in Kenya, Ghana and Tanzania gets each country's grid right in one record.

By measuring the same way every year, site by site. When an operator adds solar or batteries to a tower, the proof of progress is a measured fall in the diesel that site burns, recorded with the same method and evidence as the year before.

Emvert keeps that history per site, records the emission factor and version behind every figure, and lets you restate earlier years when a factor is revised, so a reduction in your disclosure reflects a real change on the ground rather than a change in method. Green telecom claims are only as credible as the numbers behind them.

Check whether the software controls the reporting work before it produces an output. Site ownership, evidence, calculation traceability and review status matter more than a polished dashboard that cannot explain where its numbers came from.

Emvert does not optimise network energy, connect automatically to site controllers, meters or ERP systems, or send data requests to tower companies and suppliers. It does not yet calculate value-chain (Scope 3) emissions, and it does not file reports with regulators.

What it does is maintain a controlled reporting record for the diesel and electricity data your teams and partners collect today, with evidence attached and the method recorded. Where a site record or calculation is uncertain, it stays visible for review rather than disappearing into a network total.

They depend on where you operate, but listed operators and other large public interest entities are usually among the first companies required to report under IFRS S1 and S2. Groups operating in several African countries often face different first reporting years in each one.

See ESG reporting requirements in Africa for each country's rules, standard-setter and official sources. Nigerian operators are served at emvert.com.ng.

Start with the sites, diesel logs and electricity bills that are hardest to collect or explain today, and the countries where your first reporting year falls soonest. Bring a sample to a 30-minute demo.

We run your records through the calculation and end with a written quote in your local currency, priced on the number of users and the modules you need. For the people who will run the work, see ESG data collection for sustainability teams and sustainability accounting for CFOs.