Princewill Ekwujuru
The Minister of Information and Communications, Prof. Dora Akunyili, has challenged the new management of Zain management: Bharti-Airtel to make quality service its watchword.

Akunyili made this statement recently, when the management of the company led by its Chief Executive Officer (International), Mr. Manoj Kolhi, and the Nigerian chairman, Mr. Oba Otudeko, paid her a courtesy call at Radio House, Abuja, a statement said.

The Minister declared her support for the acquisition of the Nigerian operation saying there was nothing wrong with the sale or acquisition of any Nigerian business so long as it does not adversely affect the economy in terms of unemployment and loss of investments.

She expressed her delight at the commitment of the management of Bharti-Airtel to focus primarily on quality and affordability, because those were the two most important issues in the industry currently.

Akunyili pledged the support of government to any investor who has come with good intentions to do legitimate business, especially those who have the intention to give back to the community within which they operate.

Speaking earlier, the Bharti-Airtel CEO (international), Mr. Kolhi, in revealed a three-year investment plan which will see the company investing over $300m in the first year of its operation in Nigeria.

Aside investing massively in rural telephony, Manoj stated, the company will also build a 1000-seater state-of-the-art Call Centre in the country to improve customer service and provide employment for young school leavers.

Kolhi also announced plans to partner with the Ministry of Education to build schools and provide free education for poor, rural children across the country. According to him, the company currently owns 250 schools in India, where free education, free books and free lunch are provided and teachers’ salaries paid by Bharti-Airtel as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives.

“We believe we can do same in Nigeria and give back to the community especially the indigent children in the rural areas who also have aspirations to become educated and subsequently employed”, Mr. Kolhi said.

The Bharti-Airtel management on their part declared it’s readiness to offer all its facilities for co-location. He also advocated for the introduction of number portability which, he said, will increase competition and ultimately result in service quality improvement and lower tariffs.