18 percent increase in its Nigerian unit before the end of 2014.

As at March, Airtel had 25.5 million subscribers in Nigeria. It hopes to increase the number to 30 million in its second largest market after India by the end of this year.

Head of the Nigeria unit, Segun Ogunsanya echoed some optimism that the company will achieve the set target in spite of environment and regulatory challenges, giving its “relatively good service” to customers.

The telecom firm plans to spend about $300 million in expanding its network this year. This outlay allowed for an usurp of Globacom – Nigeria’s largest indigenous telco – to the position of second biggest network in Nigeria by subscriber base.

Bharti Airtel operates in 17 African nations and has Nigeria as its largest market on the continent.

In its financial report for the fourth quarter (Q4) of last year, the company recorded a slow growth in Africa.  It gave the seasonal downturn in parts of Africa and regulatory interventions in Nigeria as the key factors that influenced. In March, Bharti Airtel was fined alongside other telecommunication giants in Nigeria (MTN and Glo) for missing service quality goals in January.

Airtel hopes to control a sizeable market share in Nigeria – a country of about 170 million people despite – its security and power challenges to doing business successfully.