MainOne, 4 Banks Sign $100m Facility Agreement

MainOne, one of West Africa’s leading telecommunications services companies, has signed a $100 million financing facility agreement with Standard Chartered Bank, FirstBank, Skye and FCMB Bank.

The ceremony which took place in Lagos at the Federal Palace Hotel, Victoria Island, was in furtherance of MainOne’s effort to expand its services.

Speaking on the transaction, Babatunde Dada, chief financial officer (CFO), MainOne, thanked the deal team for the laudable work done to bring the transaction to a close. He stated: “the successful signing of this facility agreement clearly shows the trust which the financial institutions have in MainOne, as well as our expansion plans in Nigeria and our other West African markets’.

According to Bisi Onasanya, First Bank’S group managing director (GMD), “this initiative signposts FirstBank’s continuous support to responsible and value-adding companies like MainOne.”

He said FirstBank confidently signed on to this facility further to the excellent performance of MainOne on the initial project financing the bank actively supported as a leading investor in 2009.

Also speaking on the transaction, Kehinde Durosimi-Etti, group managing director (GMD) of Skye Bank, posited that: “We are pleased with this arrangement and are providing further financing support given the performance of MainOne. It is our hope that through this financing, MainOne would add impetus to its drive to extend its services to customers irrespective of their location.”a

Ladi Balogun, group managing director (GMD), First City Monument Bank, said the bank was happy to arrange the loan facility. According to him, “FCMB is a bank that is synonymous with excellence and growth. Today, we have demonstrated once again our support for the growth of indigenous companies through this agreement with MainOne.”

It will be recalled that since commencing operations in 2010 as the first open access private Submarine cable in West Africa with the largest internet network platform in Sub-Sahara Africa, MainOne has led groundbreaking innovations in telecommunications services in Nigeria and across West Africa.

MainOne has developed a reputation for highly reliable services and has become the preferred provider of wholesale Internet services to major telecom operators, ISPs, government agencies, large enterprise, and educational institutions in the region.