IHS Nigeria, NSE Confirm $284m MTN Tower Deal

IHS Nigeria, telecoms infrastructure firm has confirmed an agreement with the MTN Group to acquire 1,758 mobile network towers (Base Transceiver Stations) in Cote d'Ivoire and Cameroon.

This will make IHS the 100 percent shareholder of the tower companies to be set up in each country to manage the towers and other passive infrastructure.

IHS Nigeria Plc has already notified The Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE) that IHS Holdings Limited has entered into a definitive agreement with MTN Group Limited pursuant to which IHS will acquire the mobile network towers.

An announcement by the NSE read that “ IHS Nigeria Plc have notified The Exchange that IHS Holdings Limited (“IHS”) has entered into a definitive agreement with MTN Group Limited  pursuant to which IHS will acquire up to 931 mobile network towers from MTN Cote d’Ivoire for $141 Million and up to 827 towers from MTN Cameroun  for 143 Million.

The statement signed by Josephine Igbinosun also stated that “following this agreement IHS will be a 100% shareholder of the tower companies to be set up in each country to manage the towers and other passive infrastructure”

It will be recalled that  IHS has already entered Ghana, Sudan and South Sudan and is currently managing over 1,500 sites in those countries.

IHS Nigeria also got $162,000 from the US Trade and Development Agency for technical assistance to support its deployment of solar power systems across the 36 states of the federation.

IHS has also built over 2,000 base stations all over Nigeria and is currently managing hundreds of sites for various mobile operators.

There are over 100,000 towers across the African continent and his CEO Issam Darwish estimated that the total value of the continent's tower market at about $50 billion.