Bharti targets 100 million Africa users in two years

The country’s largest telecom service provider, Bharti Airtel, which recently acquired the African operations of telecom firm Zain, expects to cross the 100-million mobile subscriber mark in Africa in the next two years, from the 40 million at present.

While speaking at a session at the India Economic Summit on ‘The New South: Developing the Africa-India Partnership’, Bharti Enterprises Chairman and Group CEO, Sunil Bharti Mittal, said the company was confident the Indian business model of low rates and high volumes would work in Africa.

He said when Bharti entered Kenya, it reduced the mobile rates by 40-45 per cent, which increased the minutes of usage (MoU) by about 50 per cent within five weeks and the company could recover its top line.

Compared to India, where mobile rates have fallen to as low as one cent, Africa still has a rates of about nine cents, Mittal said.

“We need to expand networks and lower tariffs, which will create elasticity of demand, with the addition of new customers and an increase in MoU,” Mittal said.

Bharti Airtel had acquired Zain’s assets in 15 African countries in June this year. The company posted a 27 per cent drop in its consolidated net profit for the quarter ended September 30, mainly because of the higher costs and taxes related to its African acquisition.