Botswana Telecommunications Corporation (BTC) is seeing a significant shift in customer behaviour towards digital services, with its latest annual report highlighting strong growth in mobile subscribers, data consumption, broadband and fintech adoption.
BTC ended the financial year with 757,529 active mobile subscribers, representing a 30% increase year-on-year. The recovery followed a period of subscriber losses linked to Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements, with the company attributing the rebound to its Dira.Gola.Tshela acquisition campaign, expanded agency network, competitive bundles and broader 4G coverage.
Data usage continued to be one of the strongest indicators of this digital shift. Mobile broadband subscribers increased 25% to 281,835, while mobile data traffic rose 20% to 80.4 billion MB. Mobile data accounted for 64% of mobile revenue, generating P312 million during the year.
BTC's network expansion has supported the increase in data consumption. The company deployed 29 new mobile sites during the year and upgraded 151 existing sites from 2G to 4G, particularly in rural areas, along highways and at border locations. BTC now operates more than 800 strategic mobile sites, with 4G population coverage reaching 95%.
The operator is also preparing for the next stage of connectivity, with 5G expected to launch commercially in Gaborone from October 2026, followed by expansion into other cities and key villages.
But perhaps the clearest indication of BTC's growing digital footprint is its fintech operation, Smega.
Smega closed the year with 481,505 registered accounts, including 122,260 active accounts based on a 90-day measure. The platform now supports services including person-to-person transfers, merchant and QR payments, wallet transactions, digital collections and disbursements, card-linked services and agent cash-outs.
Smega revenue rose sharply to P38.9 million, compared with P14.1 million the previous year, reflecting increased adoption and transaction activity. BTC is also positioning the platform for further growth through agency banking, merchant payments and greater interoperability with other financial institutions and payment platforms.
The company expects interoperability under the Bank of Botswana's payments framework to further expand the addressable market for Smega and increase transaction volumes. Its longer-term ambition is to develop Smega into a broader digital financial ecosystem incorporating payments, agency banking, digital commerce and a proposed Super App.
Beyond mobile and fintech, BTC is also expanding its fixed connectivity footprint. Fibre was rolled out across 19 localities, while its Fixed Wireless Access network had 312 base stations serving 5,247 customers.
The numbers point to a broader transformation in BTC's business. Its customer base is not simply growing; customers are increasingly using BTC's infrastructure for data, broadband, digital payments and financial services.
With 757,529 mobile subscribers, 281,835 mobile broadband users, 80.4 billion MB of annual data traffic and 481,505 registered Smega accounts, BTC's latest figures show a telecommunications company increasingly positioning itself as a digital services and fintech platform.