Africell Angola has crossed the seven-million-customer threshold, the company announced at the 41st edition of the International Fair of Angola (FILDA), marking a milestone for the operator less than five years after it entered the Angolan market and underscoring its push to expand digital services, including an artificial intelligence platform called AfriGPT.
The figure was disclosed by Africell Angola's Creative Team Leader, Sued Oliveira, on the sidelines of FILDA, where he said the growth of the subscriber base reflects rising uptake of the operator's services among Angolans.
Africell became Angola's fourth telecommunications operator after it was the only company to formalise a bid in a public tender launched by the Angolan government — a process that attracted initial interest from South Africa's MTN, among other major players, before they withdrew. The Lebanese-founded, US-backed company received Angola's unified telecommunications licence in February 2021 and completed its first test call on the Angolan network in December of that year.
Commercial services launched officially on 7 April 2022, at which point Africell had pledged to invest several hundred million dollars in infrastructure and create thousands of direct jobs in the country. Network rollout proceeded in phases: coverage expanded from Luanda to provinces including Cuanza Sul and Benguela, then to Huíla, Huambo and the rest of the national territory — a process the company has acknowledged experienced occasional delays against its original schedule.
Before arriving in Angola, Africell had already established a presence in four other African markets — Gambia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sierra Leone and Uganda. In just over four years of commercial operations in Angola, the operator has now built a base of seven million customers in a market long dominated by Unitel and also served by Movicel and Angola Telecom.
Oliveira said the company has supported this growth through investment in technological innovation and the launch of new digital services, chief among them the web version of AfriGPT, an artificial intelligence platform designed to assist students, professionals and businesses with productivity tasks.
He noted that AfriGPT was initially launched in USSD format to allow access via basic mobile handsets, and has now been extended to offer more advanced functionality on computers, tablets and smartphones. Africell frames the move as part of a broader strategy to bring technology within reach of different user profiles, from urban centres to more remote communities.
At FILDA, Africell also showcased additional technology solutions and hosted ConnectaTalks, an initiative centred on discussions around digital marketing, artificial intelligence, content creation and monetisation on digital platforms.
The event provided a platform for Africell to reinforce its positioning as an innovation-driven operator at Angola's largest business fair, as the company seeks to consolidate its role in the country's ongoing digital transformation.
Angola's telecommunications sector has grown increasingly competitive since Africell's entry, with the operator's rapid subscriber growth posing a mounting challenge to the incumbents that have historically divided the market between them.
Source: Mercado / Original article: https://mercado.co.ao/africell-angola-ultrapassa-sete-milhoes-de-clientes-menos-de-cinco-anos-apos-entrada-no-mercado/
