Other countries include Kenya, Ghana and Uganda.
Sunil Mittal, Bharti Airtel’s Group Chairman, said the Indian firm will pump a further $1 billion into its fledgling African mobile businesses this year, announcing that it had finally received the necessary regulatory approvals in all 16 countries on the continent that it entered last year.
“We have already invested $11 billion here and have committed another $1 billion this year for expansion of our networks in Africa,” Mittal said.
But he appeared to rule out further expansion into other African countries.
“At the moment, we are focusing on our 16 countries and for any future expansion in Africa, we will see as the opportunities come, as there is nothing on the table at the moment.”
According to the report, in its last fiscal year (2010-11), Bharti reported a net loss of $97.7 million at its Africa operations on revenues of $3 billion.
At the end of the firm’s fiscal fourth quarter (ending 31 March), it had 44.2 million African subscribers, which included quarterly net additions of 2.1 million.
Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) for the African unit was $7.2 per month.
Mittal noted that some of the African businesses were doing better than others: “Out of the 16 countries, many are very profitable; most of them are profitable. As far as Africa is concerned, we have to grow in Nigeria, we have to grow in Ghana, Uganda, Kenya; these are few countries where we have to step up.”
