JUST IN: MTN set to audit Nigeria tower contracts
The CEO of MTN Nigeria, Karl Toriola, said there will be periodic reviews of the company’s tower contracts to drive efficiency and ensure optimal performance from vendors.
This is against the backdrop of the recent award of tower contracts to ATC and the fact that another 1,500 site contracts will soon be due for renewal.
Toriola disclosed this at MTN Nigeria’s Capital Markets Day, held at the Transcorp Hilton, Abuja.
He said: “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 optimization, green energy utilisation and sustainability.”
In his own presentation, MTN’s Chief Financial Officer, Modupe Kadri, gave the current breakdown of the company’s tower business, saying energy efficiency initiatives and independent power projects (IPP) are essential in achieving excellent delivery of the company’s expense efficiency programme.
“IHS currently has 14.6k sites (80 percent) as against ATC’s 2.3k (13percent). About 2.5k network sites under the 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 (66per cent) and increase ATC to 4.7k (26per 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.
Among other things, Toriola also used the opportunity to announce the progress made on achieving the company’s ‘Ambition 2025’ Strategy, and the emerging opportunities in Nigeria’s digital economy to local and international investors.
Toriola said: “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.”
The event was attended by local and international investors who had the opportunity to engage high-level representatives of the Nigerian government on the country’s macroeconomic reforms, as well as MTN Nigeria executives, who provided a comprehensive overview of the company’s progress against key ‘Ambition 2025’ growth indicators.
