The company, owned by Indian group Bharti Airtel, says it spent US$5.7 million on the infrastructure, which runs for 123km between Zinder and Maimoujia and includes an extra 12km loop in Zinder, the second biggest city in Niger.
The governor of Zinder, Issa Moussa, said at the inauguration ceremony that the new network would “give the country wide access to the new information and communication technologies that constitute today key factors of growth, socio-economic development, diversification of the economy and land use planning”.
He said the link will allow the Zinder region “to give an impetus to development in education and schools, to strengthen the participation of rural communities and vulnerable social strata in the national economic life and to reduce poverty by creating qualified employment opportunities in disadvantaged areas”.
Abdel Kader Abdoulaye Babakodo, marketing director of Airtel Niger, will provide “very high speed internet for the whole population”. He added: “With this project, Zinder becomes a strategic pole of the sub-regional interconnection plan which will ultimately be a point of passage for traffic from certain neighbouring countries to the world.”
Airtel has a 40% market share in Niger, according to the country’s regulator, with Zamani Telecom, which bought the Niger business from Orange in 2019, having 28% and Moov Africa a 27% market share.
