Zain Nigeria Changes Name Again

The company started as Econet Wireless Nigeria (2001); Vodacom Nigeria (2004); and the same year to V-Mobile Nigeria; Celtel Nigeria (2006); to Zain Nigeria (2008) and now Bharti Airtel Nigeria.

According to Manjo Kohli, the Africa group chief executive officer of Bharti Airtel, the new brand name would coincide with the 50th Independence anniversary of Nigeria on October 1.

"We will invest $600 million in Bharti Airtel Nigeria in the next three years. Fifty per cent of that amount would come up in the first year. We have looked that the Nigerian telecom industry and have discovered three issues: quality of service, freedom to make calls and affordability of service which we would work on to provide quality service to consumers," added Mr Kohli.

Subscribers are, however, concerned about the quality of service following another name change. Deolu Ogunbanjo, the president of the National Association of Telecoms Subscribers (NATCOMS) said via phone, "Somehow, I do not expect that the new change in name would affect them because of their subscriber's volume but may affect them if their quality of service becomes bad.

"Once they zero their mind on the quality of service and cheaper tariffs, then they would be able to survive the change. Considering the volume of subscribers Bharti Airtel has around the world and its history, it would be able to bring down Nigerian tariff."

Frank Okafor, a subscriber said, "I am not concerned about their change of name but about the quality of their service which I hope improves soon or they will lose subscribers."

Following the acquisition of Zain Africa in 15 countries, Bharti Airtel becomes the fifth largest mobile company in the world with over 180 million customers across its business units.