Nigerian telecommunication towers company IHS has announced that it is seeking expansion funds of around US$200mn
p>Nigerian telecommunication towers company IHS has announced that it is seeking expansion funds of around US$200mn
The company, which is West Africa’s largest telecommunications infrastructure provider, said that it is targeting lease contracts with East African market telecommunication operators. IHS already has a presence in Tanzania and is looking to expand into Kenya, Uganda Rwanda, DRC and South Africa.
“Voice penetration is about 60 per cent across Africa but real penetration is about 10-15 per cent less than that,” IHS CEO Issam Darwish was quoted by the UK based Financial Times as saying. “So there will be a massive growth in voice traffic that will need building to ensure more capacity, while data use is almost non-existent and will grow rapidly.”
IHS wants to increase the number of mobile phone towers it owns to 2,000 next year from its current 850, according to the report, with some of the US$200mn to be used to buy towers that are being sold by companies such as France Telecom in Uganda.
