India's Bharit Airtel announced it would increase investment in Nigeria by hundreds of millions of dollars in an effort to reach rural areas in the country. According to the company, it will spend some $1 billion in plans to expand its network and upgrade facilities across Nigeria this year alone. This comes after the company had initially said it would invest a few hundred million dollars in the country. The Indian operator has had to boost investment in the market in order to extend coverage and strengthen the network it acquired through its purchase of Kuwaiti operator Zain's African assets in mid-2010. In July last year it said it would plough $600 million into Nigeria in its first 18 months. “We have made significant investment and are still making [investments] as we seek to strengthen the network we inherited, make it more robust and expand coverage especially to the rural communities,” Rajan Swaroop, CEO of Airtel Nigeria, told local media following a ceremony to mark Bharti's first anniversary of operating in Nigeria. “This year we are investing $1 billion in Nigeria to achieve our objectives of providing world-class service to Nigerians,” Swaroop told the paper. Swaroop added that the additional investment is “necessary to reach users in remote and rural areas that have largely been ignored by other providers.” BM
