Airtel Plans Massive Investments In Nigeria
Airtel Nigeria Managing Director, Dinesh Balsingh, has revealed plans to double investments in Nigeria by upgrading all its sites to 4G, 5G networks and artificial intelligence (AI).
The Airtel boss revealed that the investments are strategic considering the country’s population which will become the third most populous country by 2050.
The telecom company boss disclosed this during an interview monitored by THE WHISTLER.
THE WHISTLER reported that Airtel returned to profitability after a recent tariff hike approved by the federal government.
Airtel posted in its annual report ending March 31, 2024 that it made a loss after tax of $89m, which it blamed on foreign exchange losses, primarily in Nigeria.
But the financial statement ending March 2025 revealed that Airtel revenue rose by 21.1 per cent to $4.95bn in constant currency.
Its profit rose to $328m, a 468 per cent surge.
Balsingh said during the interview that, “We want to invest in superior technology on all our sites. So, upgrading all our sites to 4G and then onto 5G and then on the sites we already have, we are going to add capacity.
“When you look at capacity, it is about upgrading our radios, the different frequencies that we have and that is the second part of growing capacity. There is also another level of growing capacity with deployment of spectrum.
“So, we are looking on investing in additional spectrum. There is a lot of damaged fibre because of construction, vandalism and things like that so, we are going to repair and upgrade all those fibres.”
He said there are plans to deploy fibre in metro areas and inter-city connectivity.
Balsingh said the company is also investing massively in AI data centres across Nigeria.
According to him, Airtel plans to augment the international submarine cables linking Nigeria.
The group had admitted that its capital expenditure fell below its guidance to $670m because it differed data centre investment.
He said, “We would like to be known as partner to every Nigerian and contribute meaningfully to the lives of every Nigerian.”
Airtel Plans Massive Investments In Nigeria is first published on The Whistler Newspaper
