Airtel Africa Invests $1.1bn for Network Expansion

Sunil Kumar Taldar, the Chief Executive Officer of Airtel Africa, announced that the company has allocated $1.1 billion for the expansion and upgrade of its network across its operations in Africa. This statement was made during an appearance on Arise News’ Global Business Report.

Taldar revealed that Airtel Africa has increased its spending from approximately $120 million to $390 million across 14 markets, with Nigeria being its largest market. He emphasized that this investment is crucial for enhancing customer experience and noted that only about half of the population in Airtel’s markets currently utilizes telecom services or smartphones, indicating significant growth potential.

Taldar identified unreliable electricity and vandalism of telecom infrastructure as the primary operational challenges, highlighting that many base stations operate on diesel generators due to inconsistent national power supply. He pointed out that the cost of running on diesel has surged, with prices rising from about N900 to N1,800 per litre recently, making it nearly four times more expensive than using grid electricity.