Airtel leaving Malawi, 13 other countries : ‘Business not making progress’

Jan 30, 2017 Business 190
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Airtel Malawi

Bharti Airtel, the mother company of Airtel Malawi, says it will be leaving 14 nations in Africa within a year due to ‘poor business conditions’.

According to Nigeria’s Business Today website, the affected countries are Malawi, Ghana, Nigeria, Congo, Chad, Gabon, Kenya, Madagascar, Niger, Rwanda, Tanzania, Zambia Uganda and Seychelles

BloombergQuint quotes Bharti Airtel Chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal as saying “the move would pare the size of operations in the continent and could be completed within a year….some of Bharti’s businesses in 14 African nations would be affected.”

Airtel leaving Africa.

‘’The telecom operator is faced with poor performance across those markets. Two years ago, when Airtel began talks to sell off its operations in Burkina Faso, Chad, Congo Brazzaville and Sierra Leone to Orange, the company had stated that it wouldn’t be exiting Africa.’’ A report on Mobility Arena website reads in part.

It adds ‘’ In Airtel’s home country, India, Reliance Jio is giving them a big run for their money and messing things up for everyone. In Nigeria, Airtel is the only one of the big four mobile operators that is yet to launch a 4G LTE network. Perhaps the company does not see it as a profitable venture, given the present circumstances.’’

Earlier last year, the company had ruled out any plans of exiting the region.

Bharti Airtel was then reported to be exiting Africa in the wake of an agreement with Orange Telecoms. Orange and Bharti Airtel recently signed an agreement leading to Orange’s acquisition of Airtel’s operations in Burkina Faso and Sierra Leone.

Orange acquired 100 per cent of the two companies’ share capital. The consolidated revenue of the two companies is around EUR275 million. These acquisitions are to be implemented in partnership with Orange’s subsidiaries in the Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal.

the fear of exit from Africa, has also been triggered by the $170 million loss it recorded in the region last year. This subsequently resulted to job losses in Nigeria and other markets in the region

In 2015, the firm, which also cancelled a deal to sell more than 3,500 towers it owns in six African countries, said the 10.1 per cent rise in net profit it had was helped by rising data usage but continued losses in Africa, sustained competitive pressure on its voice business and fall in interconnect and roaming charges continued to drag.

(Info – Mobility Arena)

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190 Comments

  17. Same with Shayan/Sana/Food Kings and Ahmed they change ownership for the sake of escaping tax, they know that their free five years of their no tax paying is now over. Celtel did the same and it’s now Airtel.

    #WakeUpMalawi

  34. Liars all these billions that you make everyday are not enough. …just say you are running away from paying taxes. ….since five-year time is expiring …..

  47. Dzuka malawi!! anthuwa ndi akuba they just change ownership every 5 yrz kumene ndikuthawa msonkho. Ihave agood example, we had Portland,Lafarge,mwini wake ndi mmodzi amasintha dzina every 5 years kuti adziti ndi yatsopano.

  52. its our goverment’s policies that is causing all this these companies are given a tax holidy in for their first five years. celtel stayed its five years without paying tax then off the went, the came zain stayed its five tax holiday years and off they went now its airtel they have stayed their tax holiday and off they are going another company will be coming to enjoy the same holiday

  53. airtel has no problem but africa does,they aare just tryna pay back large sums of money to their creditors

  63. the goodness with the whites when they get rich they share…..this is another way of calling the other to enjoy the vry same poor business condition……..africa ur land full of goodies….as trump said america first and we are saying only Africa…coz we r nt going to be the last

  70. i as one of the Malawians am very concerned about this, and sometimes i question myself that is it not possible for government to buy this business so that it can progress this business by itself. bcoz if government buy this business they will use proft to buy medicine for the hospital and they can also manage to give fertilizer to everyone.

    1. not possible they had MTL it did not work. remember government privatised its companies. once it is gvt owned it ll stop making profits

  89. These buggers have gotten rich now they are running away from paying taxes. Just wait you will the firm being bought off by another crook who will negotiate for tax exemptions. These are just thieves!

  110. CRY MY BELOVED CONTRY.Economic hardships hit Malawi while alot is stolen. Mr president and your entire cabinet,how can we recover from the collapse

  112. the thing isn’t about progress but is desperate to pay back a huge sum of liability so they are selling out some of it’s stakes in African countries to neutralize the issue.. give people complete and reliable information….

  118. mmmmm koma pakana pamenepo ndiye zivuta2 dziko lake lino laumphawi ngati iri, koma mdala wamazi mkamwa iwe waononga zambiri mu dziko lino shame poor malawi

  122. yoo! nanga poti enafe tagula kale maunits kuti tikagulitse ndiye mukuti mwaseka yerrrrrrrerre! mwandisiya pazuwa akuluakulu. wet little bet bhuti ,RiP Tnm oh! sorry not tnm but Airtel RiP Airtel.

    2. Am not cursing my country ccta Trytiza Nkhoma ijust feel sorry for those pipo who gona loose their jobs due to the clossing doors of Airtell!

  135. just pack and go silently you the bunch of theives known as airtel but remember kufufuta makaka anu a red mumkalemba mma shop mwathu aja

  136. The Problem Is That You Dont See Clearly The Countries Where You Can Make Your Progress, Even The Whole Africa Should Be Unavailable. Try Other Continents Like Europe, Since You Want Progress. Malawi Will Never Progress You Even Itself

    3. And it seems that the company itself have poor management because we can’t say the whole 13+ 1 country are totally fafe in business! !! Malawi will achieve one day God is good

    5. Trytiza Nkhoma praying to God has not worked in the last 100 years, we need to be creative enough to flourish.

    6. We Can’t Allow Foreigners To Make Their Progress In Our Own Country, Its Like We Are Progressing Their Country. God Is The Best He And Will Be Blessing Malawi Ever, Dont Cry For Those People Who Dont Even Try To See Your Smile, God Is Always With Malawi, tnm Always With Malawi Network, Airtel Go!!!!!!

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