Econet Wireless
- In December 2000, Econet Wireless Nigeria Ltd (‘Econet’) was among the initial 5 applicants that bid for the auctioning licencing exercise held in January 2001. This was a company from Zimbabwe that was listed on the Zimbabwean Stock Exchange at this time.
- Econet started its GSM operations on the 7th of August, 2001.
Transition Dates
- The change in ownership of Econet Wireless Nigeria Limited became a subject of litigation.
- Each previous owner spent an average of 2 years.
- Vodacom had the shortest time-span of a 2-month ownership after terminating an agreement with Vee Networks Limited (previously known as Econet Wireless Nigeria Limited).
- In 2006, Zain acquired 65.702% of V-Mobile in Nigeria. However, MTC (as it (Zain) was then known) rebranded the network to Celtel.
- Celtel was further rebranded to Zain in August 2008 (In the Middle East, Iraqna and MTC-Atheer merged in 2007 which led to a Group new identity called Zain).
- Bharti Airtel entered into an agreement in 2010 to acquire Zain’s interests in Africa. The latter sold its operations in 15 African countries to the former.
- Airtel has been the longest owner of the network in Nigeria. This year (2020) makes it a ten-year stay of ownership in Nigeria.
The Taglines
- ‘Life’ or ‘about you’ is a dominant feature of the previous owners of Airtel Nigeria.
- This indicates that the previous owners had an element of personal touch to their consumers.
- Econet and Zain talked about the consumers’ world.
- Vodacom and Celtel talked about the consumers’ lives.
- V-Mobile was all about the consumer.
- Airtel’s present tagline is the first tagline that uses an object (smartphone) to describe it.
Seeing Through Red
- As at the time Vodacom took over in 2004, they had the blue, green and white color combinations. Today, Vodacom uses Red and White.
- Zain was the only previous owner that had a completely different color from the previous tradition of either blue or red.
- Red is the most featured element in previous owners of Airtel Nigeria. 3 out of the previous 5 owners used this color option on their brands. Today, Airtel is also branded with the red color.
