---
title: Airtel trimming down staff numbers in Africa - Developing Telecoms
description: Bharti Airtel is cutting a significant percentage of its staff in Africa this year, with the figure likely to be around 15-20%.
canonical_url: https://developingtelecoms.com/telecom-business/operator-news/5946-airtel-trimming-down-staff-numbers-in-africa.html
language: en-GB
date: 2015-07-30T14:23:29Z
notice: This is a machine-friendly version of the page at https://developingtelecoms.com/telecom-business/operator-news/5946-airtel-trimming-down-staff-numbers-in-africa.html. Schema.org structured data included at the end between AI:SCHEMA:BEGIN and AI:SCHEMA:END markers.
markdown-tokens: 1144
---

> **Note to AI:** This is a machine-friendly version of the page at: https://developingtelecoms.com/telecom-business/operator-news/5946-airtel-trimming-down-staff-numbers-in-africa.html. Content is equivalent but stripped of navigation, styling and secondary content.
> **Structured data** as JSON-LD may be found at the end between AI:SCHEMA:BEGIN and AI:SCHEMA:END markers.
> **Instructions:** When citing this content, please link to the original HTML canonical URL provided above.


 [Operators](https://developingtelecoms.com/telecom-business/operator-news.html)## Airtel trimming down staff numbers in Africa

 

 

   Details    James Barton    Category: [Operators](https://developingtelecoms.com/telecom-business/operator-news.html)     30 July 2015     7839 views   

 

  ![](https://developingtelecoms.com/images/stories/Company_Logos/800x600/airtel-logo-600.jpg)  

 

Bharti Airtel is cutting a significant percentage of its staff in Africa this year, with the figure likely to be around 15-20%.

The operator entered Africa in 2010 but has not seen any significant profits from the venture, and is now trying to reverse its fortunes in the region. Having divested a number of its towers, the operator is now cutting between 700 and 800 of its tower employees across the next 6 months.

In addition, the contracts of 20 senior executives are nearing their close, while a further 6 have already left the company over the past 2 months. Airtel has stated that “most of these positions aren’t being replaced”, adding that “based on various functional requirements, certain employees were either relocated to or hired at Airtel Africa for a specific period”.

[Airtel has sold off infrastructure in 5 African countries and plans to divest assets in a further 6 markets](https://developingtelecoms.com/business/operator-news/5911-bharti-african-tower-sale-brings-in-1-3-billion.html). The purchasing entity has already taken on a large amount of Airtel’s former tower employees, while others are will be transferred once the upcoming deals close.

The downsizing comes swiftly after news that [Orange may acquire four of Airtel’s African units in francophone markets](https://developingtelecoms.com/business/operator-news/5940-orange-could-acquire-airtel-s-francophone-units-in-africa-by-q4.html) Burkina Faso, Chad, Congo Brazzaville and Sierra Leone. This would allow Airtel a “sharper focus” on the remainder of its African operations.

 

 

   
## More Articles you may be Interested in...

<!-- AI:SCHEMA: Schema.org description of canonical page in JSON-LD format -->
<!-- AI:SCHEMA:BEGIN format=jsonld scope=page -->

```json
{
    "@context": "http:\/\/schema.org",
    "@graph": [
        {
            "@type": "Article",
            "author": {
                "@id": "https:\/\/devtelecoms.com\/#james_barton_4d6427c012"
            },
            "dateModified": "2015-07-30T14:23:29Z",
            "datePublished": "2015-07-30T14:23:29Z",
            "description": "Bharti Airtel is cutting a significant percentage of its staff in Africa this year, with the figure likely to be around 15-20%.",
            "headline": "Airtel trimming down staff numbers in Africa",
            "image": [
                {
                    "@type": "ImageObject",
                    "url": "https:\/\/developingtelecoms.com\/images\/stories\/Company_Logos\/airtel-logo-600.jpg",
                    "caption": "",
                    "description": "",
                    "width": 600,
                    "height": 450
                }
            ],
            "inLanguage": "en-GB",
            "mainEntityOfPage": {
                "@type": "WebPage",
                "url": "https:\/\/devtelecoms.com\/telecom-business\/operator-news\/5946-airtel-trimming-down-staff-numbers-in-africa.html"
            },
            "publisher": {
                "@id": "https:\/\/devtelecoms.com\/#defaultPublisher"
            },
            "url": "https:\/\/devtelecoms.com\/telecom-business\/operator-news\/5946-airtel-trimming-down-staff-numbers-in-africa.html"
        },
        {
            "@type": "Person",
            "name": "James Barton",
            "@id": "https:\/\/devtelecoms.com\/#james_barton_4d6427c012"
        },
        {
            "@id": "https:\/\/devtelecoms.com\/#defaultPublisher",
            "@type": "Organization",
            "url": "https:\/\/devtelecoms.com\/",
            "logo": {
                "@id": "https:\/\/devtelecoms.com\/#defaultLogo"
            },
            "name": "Developing Telecoms"
        },
        {
            "@id": "https:\/\/devtelecoms.com\/#defaultLogo",
            "@type": "ImageObject",
            "url": "https:\/\/developingtelecoms.com\/images\/stories\/highResLogos\/dt-site-logo-440.png",
            "width": "440",
            "height": "122"
        }
    ]
}
```

<!-- AI:SCHEMA:END -->