Sunil Mittal (pictured), chairman of Bharti Airtel, said the Indian firm plans to plough an annual $1 billion into its existing African operations over the “next few years” rather than enter new markets.

Speaking to Reuters at this week’s World Economic Forum held in Abuja, Nigeria, he said Airtel had already made “massive investments in 17 countries”, exceeding $1 billion a year in capital expenditure.

“$1 billion is the plan,” he said, looking to the future.

Airtel’s operations in Africa generated sales of $4.5 billion in the 12 months ended 31 March 2014 – a modest 2 per cent growth compared with the year previously – and accounts for around a third of group turnover.

But since entering Africa in 2010, after buying Zain’s operations on the continent for $9 billion, Airtel has yet to see a profit there.

Airtel’s international business, the bulk of which is accounted for by Africa – but also includes operations in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka – reported a net loss (before exceptional items) of INR38.8 billion ($650 million) in the 2014 fiscal year. The loss the year before totalled INR26.6 billion.

Making Airtel’s life more challenging is that many national regulators across the continent are reducing mobile termination rates (MTRs).

In Nigeria, the venue of the World Economic Forum, the country’s four biggest mobile network operators – Airtel, Etisalat, Glomobile and MTN – had their MTRs cut from NGN4.90 ($0.03) to N4.40 on 1 April.

MTR cuts hurt bigger operators more than smaller ones as they terminate more calls.

“The interconnect regime is changing in many places and in Nigeria also, and when interconnection rates change, revenues drop because the total amount of top line goes down,” said Mittal.