Airtel Uganda


Airtel Uganda Limited is a mobile communications and information technology services provider in Uganda. The company also offers mobile funds transfer and banking services known as Airtel Payments Bank. Airtel Uganda Limited is a subsidiary of Bharti Airtel Limited.

Location

The headquarters of Airtel Uganda are located in Airtel Towers, on Clement Hill, in the Central Division of Kampala, the county's capital and largest city. The coordinates of the headquarters are 00°19'09.0"N, 32°35'43.0"E.

History

The company was founded in 1995 as Celtel Uganda, the first mobile telephone company in Uganda. In July 2007, Celtel Uganda changed its brand name to Zain Uganda. In 2010, Bharti Airtel acquired majority shareholding in the business and the name was changed to Airtel Uganda. In 2013, Airtel Uganda acquired the assets and subscribers of Warid Telecom cementing its position as the number 2 mobile telephone network, behind market leader MTN Uganda.

Overview

Airtel Uganda is the second-largest mobile network provider in the country, with an estimated 9.8 million subscribers in December 2016, representing a market-share of approximately 44.5 percent, given that there were 22 million cellphone users in Uganda at that time. The business in Uganda operates under three registered entities; namely: Airtel Towers Limited Bharti Airtel Uganda B.V. and Airtel Mobile Commerce.
By April 2020, the total number of registered sim cards in the country was about 25.5 million, giving Airtel's customer numbers an estimate of 11.5 million.

Governance

VG Somasekhar is Managing Director of Airtel Uganda since September 2017. Previously he worked as Director - Special Projects, Airtel Africa. He also worked as the Managing Director for Airtel Uganda from December 2010 to February 2014 where he successful led the Airtel-Warid merger in 2013. He thereafter joined the Africa HQ office as the Executive Operations Director & SBU Head – Leader markets; and served in this role until July 2015.