By Erhumu Bayagbon
NOT many realized that Nov. 19th was the first anniversary of the Airtel brand in Nigeria, when President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan unveiled the brand to Nigerians in Abuja at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel. But rather than roll out the drums to celebrate one year of existence, Airtel is taking a look back at the past 12 months to see how much it has changed the Nigerian telecommunications landscape as it promised.

During the launch of the brand in Nigeria, Bharti Airtel’s global leader and Chairman/Managing Director (CMD) Mr. Sunil Bharti Mittal specifically outlined the company’s mission in Nigeria. He said Airtel will transform the telecoms sector in the country.

He said Airtel will emerge an extremely competitive brand and will create more opportunities for Nigerians. He also said that Airtel nurses an ambition of being the most loved brand in the daily lives of Nigerians by 2015.

Against this background, it is important to assess the performance of the Airtel brand in Nigeria after one-year of launch. Many questions come to mind? Has the brand made any major impact in the telecoms sector? Has Airtel transformed the telecoms sector?

Is the brand on a journey to being the most loved brand in the daily lives of Nigerians by 2015? Is Airtel empowering and creating more opportunities for Nigerians? Without a doubt, many events and activities have happened between November 19, 2010 and November 19, 2011.

However, the Airtel brand kicked off on a very strong note in Nigeria. The brand came fresh with a novel initiative called the One8 project, featuring exceptional African artistes including Tuface Idibia alongside a critically acclaimed Rhythm and Blues icon, R. Kelly.

The one8 project association was world-class and it immediately positioned Airtel as a strong, pan African brand with world-class spirit. The street started talking and the Airtel brand quickly assumed a poster-girl status.

While the country was abuzz with the One8 project, Airtel changed the face of marketing, pricing and tariff structure in the Nigerian telecoms sector when it announced the launch of 2Good.  This was on December 01, 2010, barely two weeks after the launch of the Airtel brand in Nigeria.

The 2Good offer, in the words of many telecoms pundits, was not just revolutionary in design and benefits but created a real stir as it shook the very foundation of Nigeria’s telecommunications landscape.

The company followed the launch of 2Good with 2Good Extra, an extension of the 2Good benefits to postpaid customers. In a short period, Airtel delighted Nigerians with several value-added offerings such as Big Family, Big Family Extra, 2SIMS, Easy Recharge (Wazobia Recharge), My Airtel My Offer, SPOC packages for SMEs and post-paid customers and Club 10, among several others.

From a products and services perspectives, Airtel ensured that mobile users experience very affordable call rates, hence its pioneering effort at price cuts has continually engineered a series of, sometimes unsettling unprepared prices cuts across all networks.

Airtel’s single-minded goal has always been to meet every individual’s communication needs and to give every Nigerian the opportunity to enjoy telecoms services at very affordable rates.

Also, Airtel’s business operation in Nigeria has had a recognizable human face in its one year of operation. With its Corporate Social Responsibility strategy and focus on education, the company has demonstrated uncommon commitment to its CSR vision.

Within three months this year, Airtel built, furnished and handed over a multi-million naira six block classroom – Oremeji Primary School 2, in Tolu Complex, Ajegunle, as part of its adopt-a-school project. The facility came complete with black boards, desks and chairs, uniforms and text books for all the pupils.

This singular gesture was at the heart of the CEO of Airtel, Mr. Rajan Swaroop, who stated at the donation ceremony, “Airtel is committed to its vision to become the most loved brand in the daily lives of Nigerians. With this in mind we will support the government agenda of transforming the lives of underprivileged children and ensuring through these partnerships across the country that we safeguard the future of this great nation.”

Also, in its quest to empower Nigerian youths as well as create a credible ladder for them to climb to success, Airtel also  launched the Airtel Rising Stars Tournament, a Pan-African football programme, by which it intends to provide an opportunity for talented but less privileged young  boys and girls in Nigeria, to become football  superstars.

The programme, which was run in partnership with Kanu Nwankwo and Tuface Idibia, football and music celebrities, ran for three months through well organised regional round rubbings, national competition and culminating in a trip to South Africa for the eventual winners.

At a recent press conference in Lagos, the Chief Operating Officer and Executive Director of Airtel Nigeria, Deepak Srivastava said the company will continue to roll out more initiatives to excite, motivate and develop Nigerian youths.

In pursuit of its ambition of being the employer of choice in Nigeria, Airtel also embarked on robust and specific employee wellbeing initiatives. The company rolled out programmes to celebrate and reward long serving staff just as it also initiated a scheme to motivate employees who have performed exceptionally. One of such programmes is the African-Indian exchange programme.

The programme allows high performing staff to work in other operations of the global company especially in its Headquarters in Delhi. Because of its many employee-friendly programmes, several top talents in Nigeria, Africa and other distant locations have begun targeting the Airtel brand.

Despite its outstanding achievements in just one year of launch, the Airtel brand suffered a contrived blow when staff of its BPO partners went to town with an allegation that Airtel had sacked all three thousand (3,000) of them.

Given the fact that unemployment is a major issue almost everywhere, the matter attracted national attention with many people spreading unfounded and untrue rumours. It was a difficult period for the brand. Aside the reputational crisis, unscrupulous elements parading as organized labour destroyed the company’s switch in Abuja.

The Airtel Switch in Abuja is a core Network backbone that provides telecommunications services to Airtel customers in most of northern Nigeria.

In the midst of the adversities, Airtel demonstrated resilience, maturity and charity – dominant qualities of a powerful brand – in dealing with the matter. And within four days, the company resolved the issue.

Without a doubt, the Airtel brand has demonstrated that it is in Nigeria to stay. The company has doubled its investment in the country and appears committed to realizing its corporate philosophy of being the most loved brand in Nigeria.

It is only appropriate to congratulate the mobile operator for a great outing in its first year. Currently, competition in the telecoms sector is at a break-neck point. Indeed, the Airtel team must continue to fight innovatively to succeed as well as make a huge impact in the lives of the Nigerian people.