(L-R) Sylvester Anyanwu, chairman, senate committee on communications and Bashir Gwandu, acting EVC of Nigerian COmmunications Commission (NCC) at the stakeholders forum on Child Online Protection last week in Lagos.

BHARTI Airtel, the new owner of Zain African operations is targeting annual revenue of over $5 billion (about N800 billion) from the new African unit. It also plans to lift its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (Ebitda) from the current $1.2 billion to over $2 billion over the same period. Nigeria, which has become the target for expansion by overseas firms, is expected to contribute about 40 per cent of this target, some $2 billion (about N320 billion).
 As part of activities that would ensure the realisation of its target, Bharti intends to invest about $300 million in its first year of operation and double its subscriber base within the same period. The telecom giant, which formally took over the Nigerian operations of Zain last week in Lagos, closed its acquisition of Zain’s mobile operations in 15 countries across Africa in a landmark deal worth $10.7 billion a month ago. The deal has been criticised as expensive by analysts, who say it will be earnings dilutive over the next few years.
Sunil Mittal, chief executive officer of the group, admitted that Bharti’s debt has risen from minimal levels to just below three times Ebitda in order to fund the deal, but he said such levels are normal for most telecom companies. “One good thing is that the new debt we have picked up is at a very good rate, so in some sense our African acquisition costs us in terms of interest outflow every year $200 million and that’s pretty comfortable,” he said.
Since closing the transaction, Mittal said  Bharti has held a “leadership conclave” bringing together executives from across the 15 African countries and has begun dispatching Indian executives to Africa.
According to him, there will be up to 50 Indian expatriates out of a total workforce of 6,500 at its African operations. Only two Indians have been deployed to Nigerian operation and this includes Mr. Rajan Swaroop, the new chief executive officer, Bharti Nigeria.
Swaroop said Bharti plans to use its economies of scale and relationships with equipment vendors to extend the coverage of its networks while lowering the cost per minute of calls to help generate more traffic. Specifically, he said Bharti would empower its Nigerian subscribers to increase their minute call capacity from the current 50 to 100 minutes per subscriber per month. An average Bharti’s subscriber in India consumes about 500 minutes per month.
Mr. Mnanoj Kohli, chief executive officer international and managing director, Bharti Airtel, said in Lagos last week that the company is in Nigeria to stay and would be interested to partner with Nigerians to further grow its network. “We believe we have inherited a very well run operations in the country and look forward to working with our team of highly talented professionals and take these operations forward,” he said.
Kohli added that Bharti’s agenda and that of the Nigerian government is the same as both share the belief that quality and affordable telecom service is what Nigerians deserve, adding that the network would implement mobile number portability in the shortest possible time.