Airtel Networks Limited (Airtel Nigeria), commonly known as Airtel, is a leading

mobile network operator A mobile network operator (MNO), also known as a wireless service provider, wireless carrier, cellular company, or mobile network carrier, is a provider of wireless communications services that owns or controls all the elements necessary to sel ...

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of G ...

. According to the Subscribers statistics released by Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) on 30 August 2019, Airtel Nigeria has 26.8% mobile telephone market share and 46.8 million subscribers. The company is a subsidiary of

Airtel Africa Airtel Africa plc, commonly known as ( d/b/a) Airtel, is a multinational company that provides telecommunications and mobile money services in 14 countries in Africa, primarily in East, Central and West Africa. Airtel Africa is majority owned ...

, the holding firm for

Bharti Airtel Bharti Airtel Limited, commonly known as ( d/b/a) Airtel, is an Indian multinational telecommunications services company based in New Delhi. It operates in 18 countries across South Asia and Africa, as well as the Channel Islands. Curr ...

's operations in 14 countries in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

Location

Airtel Nigeria is headquartered at Plot L2, Banana Island,

Ikoyi Ikoyi is the most affluent neighborhood of Lagos, located in Eti-Osa Local Government Area. It lies to the northeast of Obalende and adjoins Lagos Island to the west, and at the edge of the Lagos Lagoon. Popular with the extreme upper class ...

Lagos Lagos ( Nigerian English: ; ) is the largest city in Nigeria and the second most populous city in Africa, with a population of 15.4 million as of 2015 within the city proper. Lagos was the national capital of Nigeria until December 1991 f ...

, a major economic nerve-point in

History

The company was founded in 2001 as Econet Nigeria and was awarded Digital Mobile License (DML) for communication service in Nigeria. It made history on August 5, 2001 by becoming the first telecommunications service provider to launch commercial GSM services in Nigeria. In 2004,

Vodacom Vodacom Group Limited is a South-Western African mobile communications company, providing voice, messaging, data and converged services to over 55 million customers. From its roots in South Africa, Vodacom has grown its operations to include ...

took charge of the company as management changed hands. Later in 2004, Vee Networks took the reins of the company and became known as Vmobile. In May 2006, Vmobile was acquired by

Celtel Celtel was a telecommunications company that operated in several African countries. It was founded by Sudanese-born Mo Ibrahim. History Originally known as "MSI Cellular Investments", the company began operating in 1998. In January 2004, th ...

. In 2008, Zain Group, another telecommunications company acquired all Celtel International's shares of over $3 billion. As a result of this acquisition, all operations of Celtel Africa was rebranded from

to Zain. In 2010,

, the parent company of Airtel Nigeria, completed the acquisition of Zain Group's Africa business in a $10.7 billion transaction.

Overview

Airtel Nigeria is the second-largest telecommunications company in Nigeria by number of customers, behind MTN Nigeria. It has an estimated 46.8 million subscribers representing 26.8% market share and in terms of mobile internet users, Airtel Nigeria has the second-largest users with 32.4 million subscribers in July 2019.

Capital Market Listing

On July 9, 2019,

, the holding firm of Airtel Nigeria and

's Africa subsidiary, listed 3,758,151,504 ordinary shares on the main board of the

Nigerian Stock Exchange The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) now Nigerian Exchange Group is a Nigerian stock exchange founded in 1961 in Lagos. As of November 2019, it has a total of 161 listed companies, with 8 domestic companies on the premium board, 144 companies on the ...

(NSE) at an offer price of ₦363 per ordinary share.

Governance

Segun Ogunsanya is the past Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Airtel Networks Limited in Nigeria since November 2012. Prior to his current appointment, he was the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Nigerian Bottling Company (NBC) Limited, a subsidiary of Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company Inc. On 6 May 2021, Airtel announced C. Surendran as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Airtel Nigeria. He is to take over from Mr. Segun Ogunsaya as the managing director with effect from August 1, 2021. He was the past CEO in Airtel India and delivered exceptional performances which brought about increase in the company's revenue in India.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Airtel Nigeria Bharti Airtel Telecommunications companies established in 2001 Nigerian subsidiaries of foreign companies