Bharti Airtel has signed an agreement with Millicom International Cellular to acquire 100 percent stake in its Rwanda operation which operates under the brand name of Tigo Rwanda.
The acquisition will make Airtel Rwanda the second largest operator in the country with Tigo’s 370 million customers joining the network of Airtel Rwanda.
Early this year, Bharti Airtel and Milicom have entered into an agreement to combine their respective operations, Airtel and Tigo in Ghana. The combined business would serve nearly 10 million customers, of which 5.6 million are data customers.
Mobile data will be the main driver of growth in the African telecoms market, with the number of mobile broadband connections on the continent set to more than double over the coming five years, and rise from 419 million at end-2017, to 1.07 billion at end-2022, according to Ovum’s new Forecaster data service.
Mauricio Ramos, CEO, Millicom
The sale of our business in Rwanda is in line with our strategy to focus on providing advanced fixed and mobile data services in Latin America. We are very grateful to the government of Rwanda for their support throughout the last eight years, which allowed us to extend digital inclusion to thousands of Rwandans.
