Airtel to invest over Rwf20b in Rwanda this year

Bharti Airtel has unveiled plans to invest over Rwf20.25b (about $30m) in Rwanda this year, mainly in network expansion, Teddy Bhullar, the Airtel Rwanda managing director, said in a statement yesterday. Bharti is Airtel Rwanda’s mother company. According to the statement, the telecom firm is looking to improving and expanding its network to be able to provide subscribers more products and services. “We want to enable individuals and businesses reach maximum potential by providing solutions like affordable Internet and data plans,” Bhullar said. Since entering the Rwandan telecom industry in April 2012, Airtel has invested over $150m (Rwf101.3b) in network infrastructure development, creating over 110 jobs directly and 3,000 others indirectly. However, with high competition in the voice market, the company is seeking to build on its capacity in areas such as Internet and mobile money. The company has over 3,000 airtel money agents across the country. This has greatly enhanced mobile banking services provision to the ordinary people. Airtel money clients are now able to access the financial services at all I&M Bank automated teller machines. Airtel almost doubled its subscriber base from 570,739 to 1,004,229 customers between January 2013 and February this year. Bhullar added that the investment is part of Bharti Airtel’s plan to invest $1b every year in its African operations over the coming years. The company registered a net loss of $124m in Africa in the last quarter of 2013 compared to a loss of $91m in the corresponding period of 2012. The number of data customers in Africa during the quarter increased by 53.5 per cent to 22.3 million, or 32.1 per cent of the total customer base.