Airtel Nigeria has unveiled a robust update on a range of network, infrastructure and technology advancements that position the company at the forefront of quality of service leadership in Nigeria’s telecommunications industry.

Announced at its first media roundtable of 2026, the updates reflect sustained investments made over the past 12 to 24 months and signal an accelerated push to stay ahead of surging data demand in a rapidly digitising economy.

Speaking to senior editors and industry correspondents, Airtel Nigeria Chief Executive Officer, Dinesh Balsingh, said the company’s strategy is anchored on deliberate scale, depth and resilience.

“Over the last two years, we have invested with discipline and clarity to strengthen our network nationwide. Those investments are now translating into measurable improvements in performance, customer experience and reach, including in underserved and hard to reach communities,” he said. “In 2026, we are accelerating these upgrades because Nigeria’s data appetite is growing, and leadership in this industry will belong to those who plan ahead.”

At the core of Airtel Nigeria’s quality of service drive is the rapid expansion of its network footprint. Since December 2023, the company has increased the number of network sites by 15.5%, adding 2,242 new sites and bringing its total to nearly 16,711 nationwide. Further deployments are planned in 2026 to strengthen coverage, capacity and resilience across urban and rural locations.

Network capacity upgrades have also reached significant scale. In 2025, Airtel completed capacity enhancements on 30% of its sites, covering over 5032 sites nationwide.

Today, 99% of Airtel Nigeria’s sites deliver high-speed 4G mobile broadband, establishing the operator as a full nationwide 4G network. This year, capacity upgrades are being extended to more sites to sustain performance as data usage continues to rise.

According to Harmanpreet Singh Dhillon, Chief Technology Officer, spectrum depth and optimisation remain critical to network quality. “We have increased our 4G spectrum by 10MHz and we are actively optimising our holdings. These actions allow us to support higher data throughput, better speeds and more consistent service, especially in high-traffic areas,” he said.

Airtel Nigeria is also accelerating its 5G rollout. Over the last three months, the company has more than doubled the number of active 5G sites. The accelerated 5G upgrade happening now will connect the top 20 Nigerian cities to high-speed 5G networks, with a significant part of Airtel’s network in these cities becoming 5G-enabled in the coming year.

Beyond terrestrial infrastructure, Airtel is extending connectivity through space-based solutions. The company has established and signed partnerships with satellite providers OneWeb and Starlink, enabling enterprise-grade connectivity for businesses in remote locations, hard to reach areas and operational outposts. Recently, Airtel announced Nigeria’s first Direct-to-Cell partnership with Starlink, a breakthrough that will allow customers to remain connected while travelling through deep remote areas and enable small rural communities to access Airtel’s digital and fintech services.

The backbone supporting these services continues to expand. Airtel Nigeria has built an extensive fibre footprint across almost all states, developed through years of sustained deployment. Following the announcement to double capital expenditure last year, the company committed to expanding its fibre network by 25%, and intensive rollout activity is ongoing across cities and states. Airtel has also confirmed plans to extend its fibre footprint even further, both within major cities and between states.

A pivotal national milestone is also on the horizon. Nigeria currently relies on a single internet submarine cable landing and breakout point in Lagos. Airtel Nigeria has announced that it will launch a second internet breakout from the South of Nigeria, leveraging the 2Africa submarine cable. In partnership with 2Africa, Airtel will shortly begin carrying internet breakout traffic from Kwa Ibo in Akwa Ibom State.

“This will create a faster and alternative path for large parts of the North and South, improve resilience for the entire ecosystem. Airtel is proud to take the lead in making this happen,” Balsingh said.

Underpinning these advances is a robust IT and cloud backbone. Airtel Nigeria operates an enterprise-grade private cloud with thousands of virtual machines, managing massive storage and compute power across locations.

The infrastructure includes large GPU clusters, supporting AI-driven applications such as fraud detection, intelligent network self-healing and advanced customer analytics.

The company recently announced the upcoming launch of its hyperscaler-ready 38 megawatt data centre in Eko Atlantic. This is designed for Nigeria’s next phase of digital growth, powered by AI.

From a customer access perspective, Airtel Nigeria maintains one of the largest retail footprints in the country. Its products and services are available in over 200,000 outlets nationwide, supported by more than 4,000 exclusive shops across all local government areas and 250 flagship stores.

Balsing added that, “Quality of service today is about resilience, redundancy and intelligence, and that is what Airtel is delivering. From fibre to cloud to satellite-enabled connectivity, we are building a platform that allows Nigerian businesses to scale with confidence, regardless of location.”

He reaffirmed Airtel Nigeria’s long-term commitment to the country. “Our focus is consistent investment, disciplined execution and deep confidence in Nigeria’s future,” he said.

Aside from Singh Dhillon, other members of the Airtel Nigeria leadership on hand with subject matter expertise at the roundtable included Director, Airtel Business, Ogo Ofomata; Director, Marketing, Ismail Adeshina; Director, Information Technology, Kemi Ariyo; and Director, Corporate Communications and CSR, Femi Adeniran.

Zacch Adedeji, chairman of the Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS) has called for a paradigm shift in dependence on raw material exports to one that embrace ideas, innovation and the production of complex products as a pathway to sustainable economic growth and national prosperity.

Adedeji made the submission while delivering the maiden distinguished personality lecture of the Faculty of Administration, Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, Osun State, on Thursday.

A statement by his Special Adviser on Media, Dare Adekanmbi, said Adedeji, in the lecture entitled, ‘From Potential to Prosperity: Export-led Economy’, stressed the need to rethink growth through the lens of complexity by not just producing more of the same stuff.

He lamented that Nigeria possesses a high-tech oil sector and low-productivity informal sector as well as lacking “the vibrant, labour-absorbing industrial base that serves as a bridge to higher complexity.”

The NRS boss stated that Nigeria witnessed stagnation in its exportation drive for three decades between 1998 to 2023, and only added six new products in its export basket list between 2008 and 2023.

“Because of our current position, the Harvard Atlas concluded that we are positioned to take advantage of very few opportunities to diversify using what we already know.”

Adedeji urged Nigeria to learn from the world by comparative study of success and failure like Vietnam, Bangladesh, Indonesia, South Africa and Brazil.

“We are not just looking at numbers in a vacuum; we are looking at the strategic choices made by nations like Vietnam, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Brazil, and South Africa over the same twenty-five-year period. While there are many ways to under perform, the path to success is remarkably consistent: it is defined by a clear strategy to build economic complexity.

“When we put these stories together, the divergence is clear. Vietnam used global trade to build a resilient, complex economy, while the others remained dependent on natural resources or a single low-tech niche.

“There are three big lessons here for us in Nigeria as we think about our roadmap. First, avoiding the resource curse is necessary, but it is not enough. You need a proactive strategy to build productive capabilities.

“Vietnam’s success came from integrating itself into Global Value Chains (GVCs). They positioned themselves as the assembly hub for the world’s electronics, importing high-tech parts and exporting finished products.

“This allowed them to “borrow” technology and management skills from abroad to build their own know-how.

“Nigeria, on the other hand, remains a supplier of raw materials to these chains, not an active participant within them. We must realise that productive capabilities are not permanent. The examples of South Africa and Brazil show us that you can actually lose your industrial edge if you are not careful. Over-reliance on the easy path of resource extraction creates economic and political incentives that crowd out the difficult, long-term work of building an industrial base.”

He added that for Nigeria, which is at an even earlier stage of development and even less diversified than these nations, the warning is stark.

“Relying solely on our natural endowments isn’t just a path to stagnation; it’s a path to regression. The global economy increasingly rewards knowledge and complexity, not just what you can dig out of the ground. If we want to move from potential to prosperity, we must stop being just a source of raw materials and start being a source of ideas, innovation, and complex products.

He added that President Bola Tinubu has already begun the difficult work of rebuilding the economy to ensure collective knowledge to innovate, produce and build a resilient economy.

“The journey from potential to prosperity is not a short one, but with the right map and the right resolve, it is a journey we can finally complete,’ he added.

The Chartered Institute of Directors Nigeria (CIoD Nigeria) and the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on capacity building, governance advocacy and leadership development across the public and private sectors.

The move, the institutes said, is aimed at deepening ethical leadership, policy coherence and corporate governance excellence in Nigeria.

Both institutions are expected to leverage their combined expertise, resources, and national influence to strengthen the quality of leadership and governance practices that underpin sustainable national development.

The MoU was signed by the Director-General of NIPSS, Kuru, Prof. Ayo Omotayo, and the Director-General/Chief Executive Officer of CIoD Nigeria, Dr Taiwo Nolas-Alausa.

Under the MoU, the parties will jointly design and deliver training programmes, seminars, workshops, and conferences focused on corporate governance, ethical leadership, and strategic decision-making.

A major highlight of the collaboration is the customisation and delivery of CIoD Nigeria’s Company Direction Course 1 (CDC 1) for top-level technocrats, policy initiators, and executors undergoing short courses at NIPSS—providing a structured pathway into professional membership of CIoD Nigeria and the development of chartered directors.

The collaboration also provides a framework for knowledge exchange, with CIoD Nigeria sharing policy insights, research findings, and sectoral recommendations to enrich NIPSS’ policy research and national development discourse, while NIPSS mobilises its institutional goodwill and networks to promote governance education across Nigeria’s public and private sectors.

Speaking on the significance of the MoU, both institutions reaffirmed their shared belief that strong institutions, ethical leadership, and sound governance practices are critical to solving Nigeria’s complex development challenges and positioning the country for long-term growth.

The partnership, which takes effect upon execution, reflects a shared commitment to nurturing leaders of competence, character, and conscience—leaders equipped not only to manage organisations, but to shape policies and institutions that serve the national interest.