Bharti Airtel Ltd., the wireless phone operator owned by Indian billionaire Sunil Mittal, said efforts by Nigeria to curb rampant kidnappings cost the company an estimated $110 million in annual revenue after authorities suspended unregistered users.

Nigerian regulators barred voice services for 13.6 million Airtel subscribers in April 2022 after they failed to link their phone lines to national identity numbers, the New Delhi-based firm said in an earnings filing on Tuesday. Just under half of those have since submitted IDs, while only 3.5 million customers have been fully verified and unbarred, hitting group revenue growth in the year through March by almost 2.4%.

Bloomberg