Airtel Kenya has secured an extension of its operating licence for two years from January despite a pending bill of Sh1.7 billion on its current permit, signalling a thawing of bitter relations with the State over licensing.
Airtel Africa Plc disclosed through its unaudited financial statements for the six months ended September 30 that its Kenyan subsidiary received a notice of the licence extension on September 6 from the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA).
The early renewal of its licence comes after an out-of-court settlement with the government over its expired licence, which brought to an end a seven-year court fight.
“On September 6, 2024, Airtel Kenya has received confirmation from the regulator on extension of existing Network Facility Provider, Application Service Provider, Content Service Provider and Internationally Gateway Station and Service licence as well as its spectrum in 900 MHz, 1800 MHz and 2100 MHz that were due for renewal in January 2025 for a period of 24 months effective January 2025,” the report says.
Airtel inked an out-of-court deal with the telecoms regulator in February 2022 to pay Sh2.3 billion over a period of two years for renewal of its licence that expired in February 2015.
The firm wired Sh581 million to the CA as part payment for its operating and spectrum licence running from 2015 to 2025.
It is yet to pay the balance of Sh1.7 billion, said a source at the CA. The Business Daily has established that Airtel Kenya has committed to settle the balance before December.
India’s Bharti Airtel fully owns Kenya’s second-largest mobile phone operator, which has long struggled to compete with the dominant Safaricom.
The regulator has over the years insisted that the firm must pay the Sh2.1 billion fee for the expired permit to stay in business.
In the meantime, Airtel Kenya is operating on a licence acquired from Essar’s (yuMobile) when it bought out the rival operator in 2014.
Airtel maintains that the CA had agreed to merge its operating licences with the ones it purchased from yuMobile for the Sh752 million it paid to acquire the rival firm. The yuMobile licence is to expire on January 27, 2025.
The firm claims that upon its purchase of yuMobile spectrum and frequencies, the CA changed its earlier position and demanded an additional Sh2.15 billion as a condition for renewing its operating permits.
Airtel earlier told the court that it would have abandoned the yuMobile deal had the regulator disclosed it would demand separate spectrum fees of Sh2.15 billion. The row moved to the Court of Appeal before the settlement.
In May this year, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) revealed plans to invest $165 million in Airtel Africa to fund its operations and refinance existing loans across three subsidiaries—Kenya, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
The IFC disclosed that it planned to give Sh22.27 billion debt from its own account and mobilise another $35 million from its managed Co-Lending Portfolio Programme (MCPP)—the lender’s syndications platform for institutional investors.
This funding that is subject to approval from the IFC board makes it the second investment by the World Bank unit in Airtel Africa after a previous disclosure in 2022.
Airtel Kenya is the second-largest telecommunications services provider in Kenya after Safaricom Plc, with an estimated 16.2 million subscribers of the 59.8 million subscribers, offering it a market share of 27.2 percent.
