Rinchi
TechInAfrica – The Indian telecommunications giant, Bharti Airtel has invested approximately $630 million on 4G LTE to improve customer experience in fourteen African countries, including Nigeria, Ghana, Chad, Gabon, DRC, Malawi, Kenya, Rwanda, Seychelles, Congo, Uganda, Tanzania, Madagascar, and Zambia.
Currently, Airtel’s subscribers in Africa has increased by 10.7% year-on-year to 98.9 million across those fourteen markets. The latest report indicated that the company’s business in Africa is currently on the rise.
As quoted from guardian.ng, Airtel Africa’s Managing Director and CEO, Raghunath Mandava said that the company’s business growth in Africa has generated a 12 percent revenue.
“That near 12 percent growth was at constant currency exchange rates, but at “reported currency” rates the full fiscal year revenues grew by six percent to $3.08 billion, while profit after tax grew considerably to $331 million from just $3 million a year earlier.
“The increase comes on the back of a robust data traffic growth of 73 percent and Airtel Money throughput by 22 percent on a YoY basis. We continue to invest towards enhancing customer experience through a high-speed LTE network. To this end, the year saw an overall capex spend of $630 million. That capex was far greater than the $411 million of the previous year,’’ said Mandava.
Nigeria emerges as the top market of Airtel, positioning the telecom company to be the third largest operator in the country with 45 million subscribers and 26.2% market share.
According to statistics, Airtel’s data customers increased significantly which lead to the execution of its planned Initial Public Offering (IPO). This was confirmed last week in which the company planned to raise $750 from the new shares’ issue.
Source: guardian.ng
