Airtel May Exit African Telecommunications Scene

As severe economic crisis hits most parts of Africa, Airtel may decide to exit Africa. According to Bloomberg, Airtel “ is considering mergers or stake sales at some of its Africa operations as it looks to cut debt and make its biggest overseas acquisition profitable.”

At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Mr. Mittal, the chairman of Bharti Airtel, said this process would be completed within a year and would affect some of Bharti’s businesses in 15 African nations, including Nigeria.It's been a very bad year for Airtel. They lost $91 million in the quarter of September 2016.

In order to reduce the debt, Airtel is considering selling a stake in Bharti Infratel Ltd., its tower unit. A committee was studying whether the sale would be a minority stake or control of the tower unit and a decision could be taken in a month.

One question comes to my mind though?

Is this why Airtel refused to roll out 4G services with other Nigerian Telcos. They were planning to leave? What do we have here.

From Econet it changed to Vmobile Then Celtel, not to forget Zain To Airtel.