Bharti Airtel plans to restructure its unprofitable African operations, says news reports.

Africa accounts for close to 30 per cent of Bharti Airtel’s total revenues. Currently, the operator has separate divisions for Anglophone, Francophone and Nigeria markets and their heads report to Christian de Faria, chief executive officer, Africa.

Currently, Bharti Airtel operates in 17 African countries. Going forward, out of the 17 countries, the operator will divide operations in 15 African countries into two clusters, while keeping its Nigerian and DR Congo operations separate. The first cluster – the leadership markets – will comprise of markets where Bharti Airtel is either the leader or placed second in the market. These markets include companies such as Gabon, Burkina Faso, Zambia, Uganda, Sierra Leone and Malawi. The second cluster – non0leadership markets – will include the remaining markets.

The operator is focusing on leveraging the power of cross-country strategic synergies, faster decision making and speed to market as well enhanced empowerment for the country managing directors. Further, each of the two clusters will be headed by an executive operations director while Nigeria and Congo DR will continue to be led by their respective managing directors.

With plans of restructuring its organisational operations, Bharti Airtel has appointed Tiemoko Coulibaly as advisor to the Africa CEO. Coulibaly has been leading Bharti Airtel’s African operations in various senior roles over the last few years.