- Business
- Airtel Africa Plc Airtel Africa plc provides telecommunications and mobile money services across 14 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, primarily in Nigeria, East Africa (Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia) and Francophone Africa (Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Madagascar, Niger, Republic of the Congo, Seychelles); the company, founded in 2010 as a subsidiary of Bharti Airtel and headquartered in London, United Kingdom, holds the position of number one or two mobile service provider by customer market share in 13 of its 14 markets. Core offerings encompass mobile voice services including pre- and post-paid wireless voice, international roaming and fixed-line telephony; mobile data services featuring 4G across all markets, 5G in five markets, home broadband, fibre connectivity and data centres via Nxtra by Airtel; Airtel Money mobile financial services such as digital wallet payments, microloans, savings and international money transfers; and additional services like messaging, value-added services, enterprise solutions, tower sharing and Airtel Business network-as-a-service. The company serves 152.7 million total customers, including 64.4 million data customers and 38 million Airtel Money users, supported by over 34,500 infrastructure sites (95% providing 4G coverage), 75,400+ km of fibre and a distribution network exceeding 3.3 million retail touchpoints. Recent developments include network sharing agreements with MTN Group in Uganda and Nigeria (March 2025), infrastructure sharing with Vodacom (August 2025), a multi-year strategic partnership with Xtelify, Airtel India's digital arm (August 2025), and an agreement with SpaceX to deliver Starlink connectivity (May 2025); the company launched construction of its first Nxtra data centre in Nigeria (March 2024) and East Africa's largest data centre in Kenya, expanded 5G rollout, added partnerships with Network International for payments and Cisco for secure connectivity, initiated a $100 million share buyback programme (January 2024), reported robust Q2 2025 results with 11% customer growth and consideration of a mobile money IPO in H1 2026, and transitioned CEO leadership with Sunil Taldar succeeding Segun Ogunsanya effective July 2024.