Airtel to create 30,000 new jobs in Nigeria

     Airtel to create over 30,000 new jobs in Nigeria after taking over the ownership of zain Africa and looks to increase it's consuner base from 40million subscribers to 100million subscribers.

     Zain Nigeria finally and formally changed its brand identity to Airtel. This was after concluding a $10.7 billion transaction in June this year, which gave Indian Bharti Airtel the Zain Group’s Celtel Africa Unit.

     The name change, which happened on Friday across the country, changes the African footprints of Zain to now  AirTel . The name change brings to sixth the number of times the company would have to change identity since 2001 it started operations in Nigeria.

     As part of the celebration of unveiling the new brand, Airtel also announced the launch of a new ultra low cost handset package which effectively provides a mobile phone free of charge to all new subscribers.  The package, launched in conjunction with Nokia, will be priced at approx NGN 3,500 (USD $23) and includes a brand new Nokia 1280 mobile phone, a free SIM card and the equivalent value in free Airtel talk time and SMS text messages.
     For the sixth time zain Nigeria has got a new name. The mobile phone company that started trading as Econet in 2001 and the first to be licensed by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) became Bharti Airtel Nigeria on Tuesday, following the sale of Zain Africa to Bharti Airtel India.