Airtel completes rebranding of African operation

Zain Nigeria, last weekend, rebranded to its latest owners, the Airtel Nigeria with a promise of enthroning freedom to its customers on the continent of Africa.

This also brings to a completion the rebranding of Airtel’s African operation in 16 countries, which was acquired from Zain in June this year.

Group chairman of Bharti Airtel, Mr. Sunil Bharti Mittal, said at the event, which held in Abuja over the weekend that they began their African journey by promising to deliver world-class and affordable mobile services to customers and delighting them with innovative products.

“I believe we are taking a major step towards delivering on this by introducing the heart of our business - the Airtel brand - across our operations in Africa. Our African customers will now be able to enjoy the same best-in-class brand experience as our customers across India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh,” he said.

Reiterating the commitment of the brand in taking its network deeper into Africa, Bharti Mittal assured that Airtel services would touch the common man and bridge the digital divide in the continent.

“I am confident that over the coming years Airtel will win the hearts of customers across Africa and emerge as one of most admired brands of the continent,” he declared.

On the new brand identity, he said that the new Airtel brand comes with a promise to meet the emerging needs of customers with innovative, affordable and relevant solutions to empower consumers, giving them the freedom to do what they choose and provide them with the tools to meet life’s daily challenges.

He explained that the red primary colour of the logo reflects the warmth and vibrancy of the African continent. “It is the colour of life and of the African sun at dusk. These qualities are reflected in Airtel’s brand personality of being brave and bold, sensitive and empathetic. The new curved addition to the logo is a symbol which will help ensure instant recognition across our diverse international markets,” he enlightened.

Elucidating that as part of the unveiling, Airtel also launched an ultra low cost handset package, which effectively provides a mobile phone free of charge to all new subscribers.

The package, launched in conjunction with Nokia, will be priced at about N3,500 (USD $23) and includes a brand new Nokia 1280 mobile phone, a free SIM card and the equivalent value in free Airtel talk time and SMS text messages.

Over the coming months, he said, Airtel would launch a number of world leading product innovations which focus on delivering relevant information for customers to enhance their quality of life and provide tools that will help them overcome their daily challenges.

As said by him, in the past four months, Airtel has already made tariff interventions in 11 of its 16 markets in Africa for the benefit of the subscribers.

“It has also signed agreements to extend its networks to the most remote areas which are still not connected with the outside world,” he affirmed.

Airtel is the new brand name for the 16 Zain operations across Africa, acquired by Airtel International in June 2010.

Airtel prides itself as being driven by the vision of providing affordable and innovative mobile services to all. With the rebranding completed, Airtel now has African operations in Burkina Faso, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Madagascar, Niger, Nigeria, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.

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