Episode Transcript
Abi: Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to the Be Inspired series. Today we're speaking with Segun Ogunsanya, CEO of Airtel Africa PLC. Airtel is present in 14 African countries with over 140 million customers, providing voice, data, as well as enterprise services to businesses in the region. Welcome.
Segun: Thank you for having me.
Abi: Tell us about your journey to becoming a listed company on the LSE.
Segun: The journey started in 2018 when we made the decision to list on London Stock Exchange. It was a fairly long journey, but very fruitful. It involved dealing with so many stakeholders. Of course, with the regulators, FCA, with the London Stock Exchange, with the bankers, with the lawyers, with the accountants, with the investment community, a lot of analyst shows.
It was tedious, but worth the outcome. We had a good show. We listed finally in 2019 in two exchanges. We listed in London primarily and we had a secondary listing in Lagos Stock Exchange. But I must confess, it's been a worthwhile exercise. I mean, it was very engaging, was very revealing and we exposed Africa to a lot of investors.
We exposed the continent, the good stuff about the continent, because a lot of people are very used to bad news from Africa. We're very pleased to have shown the good side of Africa, and that was a special delight for me. I was MD of the business in Nigeria, so I was part of the team that came to London for most of the roadshows. But a fairly good experience for all of us.
Abi: Is this a journey you would advise any other sort of companies looking to come to the public market?
Segun: I think so, because what we did was to showcase Africa full of opportunities, very strong growth potentials, young population, large population. When you combine that demographics with the high governance of being on London Stock Exchange, it's a good combination. We offer growth, we offer governance, and I just think that more companies from Africa, companies from Asia, should come to exchanges like London Stock Exchange to showcase the vast opportunities in Asia, the opportunities in Africa, that have been basically untouched, and that is the true benefit of us coming to London Stock Exchange. It's been worth it, and I would recommend it to a lot of other companies who require capital.
Abi: Definitely, I agree with you because when I look at Airtel Africa, I see you've come to the market since listing and probably raised over a billion dollars. You used your positioning on the exchange, your performance, to access the market regularly.
My CEO, Julia Hoggett, always says that listing is not just for Christmas. It's the opportunities to one, connect back with your investors, have capital market access, and also use the positioning as an acquisition currency should you decide to. Since listing, I know that you've walked a very, very important journey. What would you say is doing things the Airtel way?
Segun: We're a company focused on not just making promises, but fulfilling those promises. It is in our DNA. Promises we make to investors, promises we make to our customers, promises we make to our regulators, to governments, to Africans, to our communities. We fulfill all of our promises. It's just part of who we are. We don't take promises very lightly. We don't say what we're not going to do. We do what we say. So it's certainly part of the winning formula we have. What I was talking about distribution. Talking about network expansion. Talking about cost control. Talking about supporting community with education, supporting community with financial inclusion, we do what we say.
Abi: Oftentimes people look at Africa as a country, but it's a unique continent with over 54 countries. You as one of the second largest telecoms company on the continent and being present in 14 countries, over 140 million customers. What about this keeps you up at night in terms of running a business that is cross-country, essentially a platform business?
Segun: You know, we represent Africa. And telco is a highly regulated industry, for obvious reasons. So that means we have to deal with 14 different regulators, 14 different countries. Some speak French, some speak English, some in West Africa, some in Central Africa, some in East Africa. So we've got everything. We represent Africa. But the picture of it is like, we partner regulators, we partner governments, we partner communities. And our objectives are quite similar. They are not divergent. What do we want to do? We want to create financial inclusion. We want to create digital inclusion. We want to spread prosperity. We want our children to be educated. Those are not very different from the interests of regulators and from the interests of government. That's the sweet spot. Once in a while we do have challenges dealing with some governments, but the objectives are never too different. That's probably what keeps us aligned that I mean, at the end of the day, we all want good stuff for Africans and that is why we're in Africa.
Deliver returns to our stakeholders, deliver prosperity to our communities, partner governments in creating prosperity for all, and just lift the conditions of Africans in addition to creating value for our shareholders.
Abi: As you’re talking, I'm thinking about impact. Being in 14 countries means that you're… there's a commitment on your side around impact, sustainability. Can you tell us what Airtel is doing in this regard across the markets?
Segun: We’re selling what I call an essential commodity. People want connectivity. And what we do is to connect families, we connect friends, connect people with their passions. We connect communities, connect businesses to businesses, connect consumers to businesses. That we do very, very well.
What I'm very proud of is the manner we’re bringing Africans into the digital world. The manner we’re bringing Africans into the financial world. Making sure women in villages have access to financial products, they can save money on their mobile phone. It's a very fulfilling experience. When you're creating value for as many people as possible, creating value for people who are otherwise disadvantaged. For every woman that opens a wallet in Africa, it's liberation for her from abusive partnerships.
It creates a path to prosperity for her, to feed her children, to raise children. For me, that is a lot more important than the financial rewards, because we are creating prosperity for a large number of people in many parts of Africa. It's truly rewarding.
Very recently, we signed a partnership with UNICEF. We're actually the single largest supporter of UNICEF in Africa. It's a partnership worth about 57 million dollars. 50 million dollars in kind, 7 million dollars in cash, over 5 years and is meant mainly to increase digital education in Africa. We don't want the classroom to be the only opportunity for people to learn. We believe we should define education beyond the four walls of the classroom. So we are creating opportunities for children to be connected digitally to educational materials, free of charge. And I'm very pleased with the partnership we have with UNICEF in deepening education in Africa.
Abi: When I look at the continent now, the expectation is that Africa will be 1.5 billion people in the next 20 years. And you're already in the most important market. So when you look at East Africa, it's close to about 400 million people. Aggregation is the expectation. West Africa, the same. How do you think technology is going to revolutionize how the continent produces going forward. And what is Airtel doing to lead that charge?
Segun: People talk about artificial intelligence, driverless cars, earth through 5G. Those are nice ambitions. But in Africa, we’re still at the very early beginning. We're creating financial inclusion. I think it's much more important and relevant to Africa, where we are now. Through our mobile money offering, we're allowing millions of people - when I say millions, millions of people - who don't have any linkage to any financial instrument, have access to a wallet for them to save money. Opportunity to buy financial products. Opportunity to transfer money to friends, to families, to pay merchants. That's a revolution.
It might sound very bizarre to people from Europe or from America, everybody's got a debit card, a credit card, but in Africa, having a wallet on your phone - because phone is the most popular product in Africa by the way, and in most parts of the world - being able to keep your money on your phone is a revolution honestly, and we're trying to make sure as many people as possible who are disadvantaged, who don't have access to debit cards or credit cards, they’re able to do what folks do in most part of the world; save money, spend money, transfer money, buy financial products for security. That's what I think is a true innovation that we’re bringing now. In our business, the mobile money business, it’s the fastest growing in Africa. You've got over 30 million customers now that we serve. Those are folks who don't have any other way of engaging with the financial community. We provide them with a wallet, with a means of saving, spending, paying bills. It’s revolutionary.
Abi: You're running a FTSE 100 company. What about it, what, if at all, keeps you up at night?
Segun: Cyber security. People accessing my customers’ data. That's one thing that keeps me awake, how do I make sure customers who have entrusted me with their data, we keep their data safe and secure. Because that's the minimum we owe them.
Abi: If you were to count three things, what are the three big important things for a company CEO who is looking to float a company on the exchange. What are the three things they need to do or must do, on their journey?
Segun: I would say transparency. Be clear with people. Put all the information out. Transparency is key. Governance must be very strong. No gray, must be either black or white, there's nothing in between, completely in the governance. And the third thing would be a solid business case. There's no point in going to the market if your business case is not solid. So solid business case, completely transparent, strong governance. Then I think you're good.
Abi: Thank you very much for your time today. It's been really amazing having this conversation with you. We look forward to catching up with you again sometime soon.
Segun Ogunsanya: You're most welcome. Thank you for having me.
