MARCH 2016www.endeavourmagazine.com

INSPIRED BY YOUR SUCCESS

Airtel ZambiaAfrican Airtime Goes Premium

Airtel Africa is on a mission to be the biggest and best mobile phone operator on the continent and if recent acquisitions are anything to go by, they are on the right track. Endeavour got up close and personal with the personal communication giant to find out more about their plans for market domination.

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So what does Airtel Africa want to bring to the telecommunications world? What CAN it offer? The company states that,

“Airtel is driven by the vision of providing affordable and innovative mobile services to all. Airtel has African operations in: Burkina Faso, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Madagascar, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.”

It’s this promise of affordable, reliable and forward-thinking mobile solutions that has captured the hearts, interest and financial commitment of so many customers add to that the impressive expertise that CEO Christian De Faria brings to the table and you have a company that customers actually want to deal with.

“Christian De Faria, Chief Executive Officer and MD - Africa is a French national with over 30 years of rich industry experience garnered across multiple geographies, diverse sectors and organisations such as MTN, Telekom Malaysia, Disc Vision, Deutsche Telecom and Grundig.”

Christian is a man that understands what consumers want from their mobile service provider and with a team of exceptionally experienced and equally passionate mangers by his side, he is determined to deliver it. The difference is, he will do so, while adhering to a strict set of values that underpin the organisation.

Airtel are clear about their desire to not only surpass customer expectations, but to do so in line with rigid ethics and codes of conduct. Empowerment, Flexibility, Entrepreneurship, Transparency

and Impact are the five pillars of the company value system and give an insight into just how important responsible and sustainable activities are. What’s even more impressive is that it’s not just in their necessary dealings with customers that Airtel Africa seeks to be an honest, integrity-driven operation; they do so voluntarily too and for no financial gain.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) really separates the men from the boys in the business world, with those who actively look for new opportunities to give back to local communities soaring head and shoulders above their less willing competitors. Airtel Africa, in line with parent company protocols, does not shy away from investing into the continued success and development of local communities.

“In line with the Bharti philosophy of ‘giving back to society’, Airtel Africa has been actively involved in social welfare initiatives across the 17 countries in Africa where it operates. Working primarily in the field of education, it has also forged strong ties with local communities, various corporate organisations, institutions and the Government in its endeavour to reach out to the lesser privileged sections.”

Far from following the example set by many western firms that look to simply donate money, which has the added benefit of being a tax relief measure, Airtel Africa recognises that in order to see longstanding benefits, a deeper investment needs to be made than simply financial aid. With that in mind, educational support has been made the primary focus.

“The role of education in eradicating poverty cannot be

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In order to tackle local marketplace domination, any company requires the requisite backing and expertise behind it and Airtel Africa has exactly that. Owned by Bharti Airtel, a major global player in the telecommunications arena that is cited as being in the top four world service providers (based on active subscribers), there is no doubting just how well-supported this operation is. In fact, with close to 300million customers by the end of 2013 alone, Bharti Airtel is the perfect parent company, with an inspirational rise to industry glory to learn from!

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overstated. Receiving an education is perhaps a child’s biggest barrier to escaping poverty. The power of an education continues to provide benefits to subsequent generations as educated adults tend to marry later in life, have healthier children, are more productive at work, receive better pay in the workplace and generally enjoy greater health. In Africa It is common for rural youth - especially girls - to drop out or be forced to travel far away from their homes in order to attend school. The majority of existing schools – especially in rural areas - are overcrowded, poorly furnished and under-resourced. Historically, in Africa, education has only been available in the cities and larger towns and there’s still a long way to go before that imbalance is redressed.”

With this knowledge firmly underpinning the CSR endeavours of the company, it comes as no surprise that Airtel Africa has committed to a rigorous programme of educational funding.

“Airtel Africa’s flagship programme, ‘Our School’, is a school-adoption initiative, under which it has currently adopted 38 primary schools in the rural corners of Africa, across 17 African countries. Working closely with the Government in these countries, it works towards improving the quality and delivery of education to children, in underprivileged communities. Currently, these adopted schools cater to more than 18,000 underprivileged children.

In addition, the programme also works towards building community and employee engagement with the adopted schools. The school calendar ensures that there is enough opportunity for the community to understand and be engaged with the programme, participating in cleanliness drives, tree plantations etc. undertaken by the schools, this includes employees of Airtel Africa as well”

While ICT and Broadband connectivity improvements would seem like a natural way for Airtel to support their adopted schools, the support runs much deeper than that, with refurbishments being paid for, school uniforms being provided and teaching aids all being offered. That’s above and beyond regular CSR initiatives, we think you’ll agree.

While mobile service providers might look like huge, faceless corporations, Airtel Africa is actively changing that perception. They have a genuine investment in and desire to see people being better connected and offered as many opportunities for personal development as possible and whether that means supporting future customers in their educational studies or simply making sure that the mobile connectivity they offer customers is reliable and affordable, one thing is certain; Airtel Africa cares and it’s doing everything it can.

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