Telecom
With Touching Lives, Airtel Committed To Nigeria’s HCD Index
Nigeria is by far the most populous country in Africa and is well endowed with natural resources; a uniqueness that gives it an edge over all other Third World countries.
However, despite these advantages, the Human Capital Development Index which measures the achievements of a country in terms quality of life shows that Nigeria still lags behind in the economic and social wellbeing of its average citizens.
There are several people in Nigeria who need help to achieve their dreams but do not find one readily available to them and it is in response to this that Airtel has vowed to support different people across the country through its Airtel Touching Lives CSR Programme.
For Airtel, investing in social interventions is not a new development, as it has over the years been strongly committed to giving back to its host communities.
This spirit of charity is not limited to the company alone; it also permeates down the line of its entire workforce whohave at various times added to the company’s effort at bringing succor and relief to many Nigerian families through the Employee Volunteer Scheme.
The case of a five year-old boy that was born with an organ deficiency known as Hirsch sprung disorder which made him unable to carry out normal bowel activity is still fresh to mind.
His parents became distraught when they learnt that after several operations they still needed several millions to operate him.
Fearing for the life of their son, they sought help from well-meaning Nigerians.
It was however with the commitment of Airtel, through the contributions of its employees, that the boy got a lifeline and adequate funds were raised for his operation.
The case is one of the many other instances where Airtel has shown love and care and given hope to those in despair.
Through the Touching lives initiative, Airtel aims toaffect the emotional and physical needs of many more underserved Nigerians positively whilst also providing comfort for many who have no support.
Mr. Segun Ogunsanya, managing director and chief executive officer, Airtel Nigeria, whilst speaking at the launch in Lagos said that the programme is meant to empower the underprivileged Nigerians and tackle the challenges millions of people are facing.
“At Airtel, we are passionate about the people we serve and the Nigerian society. Airtel Touching Lives provides a platform for the needy in our society to be identified, heard and also cared for,” he said.
As the tree of hope is being planted across the country through the philanthropic gesture of Airtel, families and individuals now have an opportunity to partake in the company’s benevolence.
As a leading telecommunications provider with a growing subscriber base, Airtel is aware, and inspired daily by the selflessness of Nigeria’s citizens, who daily pick up their devices to compose, broadcast, retweet and monitor efforts at bettering the lot of their fellow man, woman or child.
It is doubtful that there exists a Nigerian who has never seen, passed on or even contributed to raise medical fees for a total stranger; others have even acted on images from Twitter and rushed to donate blood in times of national urgency.
It is in line with encouraging and developing Nigerians’ innate charitable nature that Airtel has commenced the opening of dedicated channels through which Nigerians can nominate disadvantaged persons in need of special intervention.
In much the same way that Nigerians have admirably spoken out to save others using the tools of telecommunication supported by collective action, applications will be sought, collated and assessed transparently.
The stories of individuals who finally get selected from all applications received and the intervention provided by Airtel will be shared on both satellite and terrestrial TV stations as a 13-week series.
This has the primary aim of inspiring Nigerians to remain committed to the ideals of humanity that demand we all as individuals, contribute our bit towards enriching the lives of others, and by extension developing Nigeria’s Human Capital for the greater good of all.
Other significant social intervention projects on the Airtel’s front-burner includes its Adopt-a-School Programme which has been operational since 2011 and takes on the peculiar needs of schools and students across the federation.
There is also the Airtel Red Hot Promo which made a new breed of millionaires able to uplift their personal circumstances and become empoyers of labour, as well as the National Call Centre Project, to mention a few.
Indeed, Airtel is most concerned about helping individuals connect and realise their dreams even as it remains steadfast in its pursuit of being the most loved brand in the daily lives of our country’s greatest resource—ordinary Nigerians.
Femi Adeniran is head, Public Relations at Airtel
Airtel Nigeria has reaffirmed its long-term commitment to strengthening Nigeria’s digital infrastructure and data access to bridge gaps in connectivity and unlock new opportunities in the country.
The company restated this commitment during a recent high-level inspection tour of the Nxtra Data Centre that is being developed through Nxtra by Airtel Africa at Eko Atlantic, Lagos, the highly rated smart city with ambition to become the Data Centre hub of Nigeria.
The inspection tour was led by the Chief Executive Officer of Airtel Nigeria, Dinesh Balsingh and the Chief Executive Officer of Nxtra by Airtel Africa, Yashnath Issur, with the esteemed chairman of Eko Atlantic Mr. Gabbi Massoud, the CEO of the lead Engineering firm Design Group Limited, Mr. Bayo Odunlami and tech journalists.
The Nxtra Data Centre went through a stringent design validation process and cleared the approval to proceed construction from Eko Atlantic.
Commenting on the developments, Mr Issur said the site visit was a milestone marker and an indication of the company’s commitment to delivering the world-class digital facility on time and ensure that, ultimately, the investments deliver reliable, secure, world-class services for Nigeria and the rest of the continent.
“This Nxtra Data Centre in Lagos represents a critical part of our long-term vision for Nigeria’s digital ecosystem. Today’s visit allows us to review progress, engage our stakeholders, and ensure that our infrastructure investments continue to meet global standards and local needs.
“This data centre will deliver critical high multi megawatt capacity in line with hyperscale customers and enable high density environment. We are putting the infra to bring the cloud to Nigeria,” he said.
The data centre, set to be the largest in Nigeria, is being established to deliver hyperscale and edge facilities across key African markets. With a load of 38 Megawatts, the Lagos facility is expected to serve as a major hub for data hosting, cloud services, content distribution, artificial intelligence, and enterprise solutions in West Africa.
In his remarks, Mr Balsingh reiterated that the data centre was progressing steadily towards the previously announced 2028 go live date.
“Since the announcement of this project, our focus has been on building a world-class facility that supports Africa’s digital transformation agenda. We are encouraged by the progress recorded so far and remain committed to delivering a secure, energy-efficient, and future-ready data centre for Nigeria,” he said.
During the tour, stakeholders were ushered through key sections of the site, including piling zones, where required structural requirements have been tested. Technical teams provided briefings on infrastructure design, security architecture, redundancy systems, and sustainability measures being implemented to ensure reliability and operational excellence.
Strategically located close to major fibre routes and undersea cable landing stations, the Eko Atlantic data centre is designed to enhance Nigeria’s data sovereignty, reduce latency, and improve access to reliable digital services for private and enterprise customers, significantly boosting the country’s data hosting capacity and supporting emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and cloud computing.
Mr. Massoud noted that the inspection tour underscored the city’s dedication to infrastructure of global relevance.
“Eko Atlantic as a city with high quality infrastructure will contribute positively to boost the economy of Nigeria and is a perfect place for the development of the digital infrastructure of Nigeria. The Nxtra data centre reflects the calibre of projects we seek to attract — long-term, technology-driven investments built to the highest global standards.
Today’s visit affirms the rigour of the planning and execution process by Nxtra, and the commitment of Eko Atlantic to facilitate and promote the Nigeria’s evolving digital ecosystem,” he said.
Through this ongoing investment, Airtel Nigeria and Nxtra continue to demonstrate their commitment to building infrastructure that enables innovation, supports economic development, and accelerates Nigeria’s digital transformation.
Nxtra by Airtel is developing a network of hyperscale data centres across the continent. Besides Lagos, construction of a new data centre has also commenced in Nairobi, Kenya and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Google has partnered with top African research institutions to unveil WAXAL, a massive open-access speech dataset aimed at giving over 100 million people across Sub-Saharan Africa a stronger voice in the AI future.
The initiative, announced Monday, targets a key digital gap by supplying high-quality data for 21 local languages, such as Hausa, Yoruba, Luganda, and Acholi. It includes 1,250 hours of transcribed natural speech and more than 20 hours of studio-grade recordings for advanced synthetic voice tech.
Voice AI has exploded globally, yet Africa’s 2,000-plus languages suffer from severe data shortages, sidelining hundreds of millions from native-tongue tech access. WAXAL, three years in the making with Google funding, changes that equation.
“This dataset lays the groundwork for students, researchers, and entrepreneurs to craft tech in their own languages, impacting over 100 million lives,” said Aisha Walcott-Bryantt, Head of Google Research Africa.
She highlighted its potential for African innovators to develop educational tools and voice services that spark economic growth continent-wide.
Community-led from the start, the project involved Makerere University (Uganda), University of Ghana, Digital Umuganda (Rwanda), and others. These partners own the data outright, pioneering fair AI collaboration models.
Covered languages: Acholi, Akan, Dagaare, Dagbani, Dholuo, Ewe, Fante, Fulani (Fula), Hausa, Igbo, Ikposo (Kposo), Kikuyu, Lingala, Luganda, Malagasy, Masaaba, Nyankole, Rukiga, Shona, Soga (Lusoga), Swahili, Yoruba.
WAXAL goes live today. Details at goo.gle/IntroducingWaxal.
Telecom operators in Nigeria invested more than $1 billion in 2025 to deploy over 2,850 new sites, boosting nationwide coverage and capacity, according to data from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).
NCC
The investment details emerged in the just-released 2025 Network Performance Reports, announced by Dr. Aminu Maida, executive vice chairman (EVC), NCC.
Speaking at an engagement on the reports, Dr. Maida emphasised the regulator’s focus on transparent, data-driven oversight.
“Through our collaboration with Ookla, we are providing independent insights into real-world network performance and the lived experience of Nigerians across cities, rural communities, highways, and emerging 5G zones,” he said.
The Q4 2025 reports highlight steady gains in network quality, including improved median download speeds in urban and rural areas compared to Q3.
The video Quality of Experience gap between urban and rural zones has also narrowed, bolstered by a stronger 4G backbone.
Dr. Maida noted ongoing challenges, such as 5G service gaps and upload speed disparities. “We are actively engaging with operators to address these issues, including gaps in mobile service coverage,” he added.
Operators have committed to surpassing their 2025 investment levels in 2026, with infrastructure rollout set to intensify.
“We look forward to continued collaboration with industry stakeholders as we translate these insights into better connectivity, improved service quality, and a more inclusive digital future for all Nigerians,” the EVC concluded.
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