Bharti Airtel announces African call centers

NIGERIA: Bharti Airtel's global CEO says the Indian company will be bringing call center jobs to Africa after buying out a major mobile phone provider on the continent.

Manoj Kohli told journalists Monday that partnerships with IBM, Tech Mahindra and SPANCO will bring outsourced support jobs to Nigeria and other nations to bolster its recently purchased Zain network.

Company officials estimated several thousand call center jobs would start immediately, with more in the future. Kohli declined to offer a value on the deal.

Bharti has 183.4 million customers across 19 countries, making it the world's fifth largest telecommunications company. Bharti closed a $10.7 billion deal in June with Kuwait-based Zain to take over its holdings in Nigeria and 14 other African nations.