Zain deal will renew India-Africa connect

The countrys largest telecom operator Bharti Airtels acquisition of Zain Africa is much more than the record event of an Indian brand travelling beyond the domestic frontiers for the first time in Indias history....

The countrys largest telecom operator Bharti Airtels acquisition of Zain Africa is much more than the record event of an Indian brand travelling beyond the domestic frontiers for the first time in Indias history. It re-starts the India-Africa story,the age-old ties which was overtaken by China with the passage of time. Once again India has been bestowed the opportunity to reinvigorate the relationship. While China pours in billions of dollars to increase its footprint in Africa,the Indian government just needs to facilitate the entry of the private sector there.

In an interview with FE the day the company closed its 10.7-billion transaction with Zain,chairman and managing director,Sunil Mittal said,The government just needs to improve air connectivity with Africa,even if that means giving money to Air India. At least connect Nairobi directly with India and the returns would be for all of us to see. People would pay for the tickets and industry would flock to Africa and we would guide other industrial houses to that place. Currently there are no direct flights to Africa making travel cumbersome.

We are not asking for any other help from the government. During our talks with Zain we got excellent support from our embassies,which have done a great job. All that we ask from the government now is improve connectivity, Mittal elaborated.

Mittal said that Africa is topical now and everybody is talking about it. There are opportunities there,it is Like India some 10-15 years back.

He has a point. When Bharti late last year entered Bangladesh by acquiring Warid Telecom,various other companies in different sectors followed it. Mittal gave a peek for the kind of opportunities that lie for certain sectors with the Bharti-Zain deal. Investments in sectors like generators,towers,shelters,value-added services to name a few would start flowing into Africa.

In India Bharti is not only the largest operator but also an innovator it was the first to start processes like outsourcing network and IT to specialists like Ericsson,Nokia Siemens and IBM,which later became industry norm. What game changer would the company bring in the overseas market now? Mittal is quick to answer: Tariffs8230; tariffs in African and European countries are extremely high,around 20 cents per minute compared to a cent in India. Second,the networks are not deep and wide there,which we would bring about. And of course one cannot rule out new,innovative services which would be unveiled. Affordability with wide,deep coverage would be our hallmark.

And what would the company bring back home with the Zain experience? Mobile money transfer,an area where we are much behind Africa and which has huge potential in India, Mittal said. Around Rs 25,000 crore just gets dealt on Airtel8217;s network in a year by way of recharge vouchers et al,so the potential is huge. Theres no need to have any tie-ups with banks or the company to become a bank. A customer just needs to pay the amount at a mobile companys distribution point and send an SMS to the recipient anywhere in the country and the latter takes cash from the receiving end distribution point.

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The government is working on mobile money transfer and hopefully it should happen fast8230;we would have a competitive edge here, Mittal said.