According to Nigeria Communications Week, MTN Nigeria has announced plans to sell a stake in its nationwide network of telecoms masts – made up of 11,000 towers – which it values at $1 billion.
Andrew Bing, CFO MTN Nigeria said in an interview in Lagos, “there is a bidding process going on, so they’re busy doing a due diligence on us, on our towers, our processes and we’re doing due diligence on them, if they’re the right company”.
He stated further that the process should come to a close before the end of this year, after which there will be a financial bid and a transfer of towers.
By this, MTN is responding proactively to some of the challenges most telcos in Africa face, due to the operational costs of running backup generators constantly, excessive taxes and levies, among other things. By sharing operational costs with other stakeholders, they can hopefully shed off some of the financial pressure.
Bing says that the company is yet to decide how much of its stake in the network of masts it will retain, as it is subject the terms in which the bidding company will buy them: “There is the need for more towers and there will be and therefore the towers do become a strategic business going forward, but having a tower to yourself is a costly business. The ability to share those costs is what helps drive profitability.”
