Emma Okonji
Airtel Africa, a major telecommunications services provider with operations in 14 countries across Africa, Wednesday announced that it has crossed the 100 million customers mark across its operations.
Airtel Africa is now the second-largest mobile operator in Africa by number of active subscribers.
Similarly, Airtel Nigeria, which had remained the third largest telecoms operator in the country by subscriber number for so long a time, moved one step up to become the second largest telecoms operator in Nigeria, according to the industry statistics released yesterday by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the telecoms industry regulator.
According to the statistics obtained from NCC’s website, Airtel’s subscriber number reached 46.8 million with a teledensity of 26.8 per cent to become the second-largest telecoms operator as at August 2019, while Globacom recorded 46.7 million subscribers with a teledensity of 26.7 per cent for the same period.
MTN, however, maintained the market leader by subscriber number with 65.4 million subscribers and a teledensity of 38 per cent.
Airtel, which was the first telecoms operator to launch its commercial telecoms services in Nigeria on August 6, 2001, maintained the position of the second-largest telecoms operator after MTN which first launched its commercial services on August 8, 2001, two days after Airtel did.
Globacom launched its operation on August 29, 2003, and later overtook Airtel to become the second-largest telecoms operator, a position it held before Airtel reclaimed it this August.
Commenting on the milestone achievement of Airtel Africa, its Chief Executive Officer, Raghunath Mandava, said: “I am delighted to report that Airtel Africa has crossed the 100 million subscriber mark. This achievement is a testament to the hard work of our employees and a clear reflection that customers value our network, service offerings and customer experience. The positive momentum we have seen in customer acquisition further underpins our medium-term aspirations for revenue and profit growth. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the teams that have worked hard to get us
here.”
He added that Airtel Africa’s footprint is characterised by low but increasing mobile connectivity, with a unique user penetration at 43 per cent, highlighting the potential for growth across its footprint.
