MTN Nigeria‘s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Mr. Karl Toriola, has stated that the company’s tower contracts will be subject to periodic review in order to promote efficiency and assure optimal performance from vendors.
This is in light of the fact that ATC was just recently given contracts for towers and that another 1,500 site contracts are coming up for renewal in the near future.
Recently, this was discussed during MTN Nigeria’s Capital Markets Day, which took place at the Transcorp Hilton in Abuja. Toriola made these remarks at the event.
He revealed that: “Efficient tower contracts are key in driving cost-effective, deep broadband penetration and leading technology across our operations, and in our quest of achieving differentiated value, we will from time to time review the contracts we have with our partners to ensure they optimally meet our site requirements. But beyond efficiency, we will also focus on cost optimisation, green energy utilisation and sustainability.”
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More About MTN tower
During his presentation, the Chief Financial Officer of MTN, Modupe Kadri, provided a current breakdown of the company’s tower business. He stated that energy-saving measures and independent power projects (IPP) were needed in order to achieve good delivery of the company’s expense efficiency program.
“IHS currently has 14.6k sites (80 per cent) as against ATC’s 2.3k’s (13 per cent). About 2.5k network sites under IHS portfolio due to expire in 2024 and 2025 have been awarded to ATC after a highly competitive bidding process. This will reduce IHS’ portfolio to 12.1k sites (66 per cent) and increase ATC to 4.7k (26 per cent) of the entire portfolio.”
“The remaining IHS sites will expire between 2025 and 2029, with the majority in 2029. It is important to say that tower contract renegotiation, supported by disciplined capital allocation, is very important in mitigating the impact of forex liberalisation and higher energy costs,” he said.
The progress MTN makes
Toriola took use of the opportunity provided by the Capital Market Day event to disclose to local and international investors the progress that has been made toward reaching the company’s ‘Ambition 2025’ Strategy, as well as the developing potential in Nigeria’s digital economy.
“I am encouraged and excited at the prospect of a liberal economic reform agenda for Nigeria that presents an opportunity to unleash its latent growth potential. The recognition that private sector investment will be critical to that is clear, and we are already seeing steps being taken to enable the business environment. We believe that Nigeria continues to present significant opportunities for us to deliver inclusive growth and expand access to connectivity while also supporting the drive for financial inclusion,” Toriola said.
Local and international investors were present at the event, and they had the opportunity to engage high-level representatives of the Nigerian government on the topic of the country’s macroeconomic reforms. In addition, executives from MTN Nigeria presented a comprehensive overview of the company’s progress against key ‘Ambition 2025’ growth indicators.