LATEST players on the Nigerian telecoms landscape, Bharti Airtel has expressed the desire to empower rural communities in Nigeria with affordable telecommunication services.

The Indian telecom company, which now holds a controlling stake in Zain Nigeria, said it will be the rural network of Nigeria and will provide high quality service at purse friendly rate for this segment of the society which is presently underserved.

Manoj Kohli, Chief Executive Officer, Bharti Airtel Africa, unfolded these plans the plan during the week when he announced the assumption of management of Zain Nigeria following the acquisition of Zain Africa assets by Bharti International.

According to Kohli, Africa with a population of over 1 billion people deserved a better teledensity than presently is the case.

He said Bharti will aim to increase the teledensity from the present 20% to 50% in the next six years, saying that “Africa is the growth market and Nigeria is the Jewel of Africa.”

Manoj Kohli informed that it was the desire of Bharti to serve the interest of the rural population with affordable but qualitative telephony service in the years ahead.

Comparing average minute of use (MoU) across various countries, Manoj noted that Nigeria has the lowest rate in the world, with an average of 50-60 minutes.

He said Bharti intends to raise the rate to 500-600minutes, thus giving Nigerians a greater opportunity to talk and express themselves without feeling inhibited by high tariff. Manoj explained that it is Bharti is of the view that customers in Nigeria deserved freedom to express themselves feely at a competitive rate.