By Duncan Mlanjira

Copyright maraviexpress

In 13 of its markets — including Malawi where the service detected over 8 million spam SMS messages cumulatively

* Kenya recorded the highest spam volume with 68 million messages flagged followed by Tanzania (47 million) and Zambia (33 million)

* Overall, there has been a 12% reduction in spam messages since the launch of the Airtel Africa SPAM Alert service — with Nigeria recording the highest drop of 84%

By Duncan Mlanjira

More than 205 million spam SMS messages were detected by Airtel Africa’s pioneering Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered spam detection service, Spam Alert in 13 of its markets — including Malawi — over the last 6 months.

In a press statement from Dubai today, Airtel announced that during the period under review, “Kenya recorded the highest spam volume with 68 million messages flagged followed by Tanzania 47 (million) and Zambia (33 million)”.

“Since the service launched in Malawi in July 2025, the innovative service has detected over 8 million spam SMS messages cumulatively. Overall, there has been a 12% reduction in spam messages since the launch of the Airtel Africa SPAM Alert service — with Nigeria recording the highest drop of 84%,” said the statement.

The Spam Alert Service is available to all Airtel subscribers automatically for free and without the need for any app, which warns customers who receive suspicious messages with a warning ‘SPAM Alert’.

Airtel Africa has so far rolled out the service in 13 of its 14 markets of Malawi, Nigeria, Kenya, Zambia, Uganda, Gabon, Congo Brazzaville, Madagascar, DRC, Rwanda, Tanzania, Chad and Niger — with Seychelles’ to be launched soon.

The statement quotes Airtel Africa Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Sunil Taldar saying: “We are proud to pioneer an advanced tech solution powered by AI in tackling spam messages that are a major concern in Africa as smartphone penetration increases.

“This free service is yet another demonstration of our commitment to consistently innovate to deliver an unmatched experience and safer network to our customers.”

Airtel Africa’s Spam Alert service uses AI to analyse and classify SMS messages as ‘SPAM ALERT” based on various parameters — including the sender’s usage patterns and SMS frequency in real time.”

Launched in Malawi on July 3, by Airtel Malawi Managing Director (MD), Ashish Dutt — joined by Minister of Information & Digitalisation, Moses Kunkuyu and Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA) — the service was described as “unprecedented innovation”.

Spam refers to unsolicited SMS messages to phones, often from fraudsters and scammers and the messages are usually socially engineered and potentially lead to harvesting of data, spreading malware and swindling of money from unsuspecting mobile users.

With incidents such as fake Airtel Money transaction messages, ‘Miracle’ money prompts, impersonation of Airtel staff, and suspicious ‘you’ve won a prize’ messages, the Spam Alert technology is designed to give power back to the customer by classifying suspicious SMS messages as ‘Suspected SPAM’.

Customers are assured that without reading specific SMS messages, Airtel’s Spam Alert analyses over 250 parameters, including the sender’s usage patterns such as SMS frequency and geographical spread of targets in real time.

The AI Spam Alert Service is designed to filter all SMSes through proprietary dual-layer protection; one layer at the network level and the other at the IT systems level — processing over 18 million messages, each in 2 milliseconds.

Additionally, the software alerts customers of malicious weblinks received via SMS. For this purpose, a centralised database of blacklisted URLs is maintained, and by scanning every SMS in real time, the AI system can warn users against accidentally clicking any suspicious links.

At the launch in Lilongwe, Airtel Malawi MD, Ashish Dutt, said: “This service is more than just technology, it’s a promise to our customers that their safety and trust are our top priorities. We heard Malawians loud and clear, and this Spam Alert Service is our answer.

“With AI on our side, we are not just reacting to fraud, we are proactively staying ahead of it and the best part is this service is accessible to all our customers for free.”

Through this AI-powered Spam Alert service, Airtel Malawi once again leads the industry in innovation, reaffirming its commitment to protecting customers and advancing digital trust in Malawi.