Following the announcement last week that IHS Holding Limited (NYSE: IHS) (“IHS Towers” or the
“Company”) and MTN Group had renewed and extended communications
infrastructure deals in Nigeria, as well as completing the renewal of all contracts across IHS
Towers-MTN markets recently, the companies said on Tuesday that with the commercial
relationship now firmly established for the next decade, they will now work constructively to
find a mutually agreeable resolution to governance issues previously raised.
On 7 August 2024, the companies announced the agreement to renew and extend all Nigerian
tower Master Lease Agreements until December 2032. The contracts include new financial terms
that provide what the parties believe to be a more sustainable split between local and foreign
currency. With this, IHS Towers and MTN Group have now completed the renewal of
approximately 26,000 MTN tenancies on IHS Towers infrastructure across six African markets –
Nigeria, Rwanda, Côte d’Ivoire, Cameroon, Zambia and South Africa.
MTN Group owns approximately 26% in IHS Towers, a stake which pre-dates the tower
company’s listing on the New York Stock Exchange in 2021.
Sam Darwish, Chairman & CEO, IHS Towers, said, “As our largest customer and longest
serving partner, we are proud to have completed the renewal of all tenancies with MTN Group
in our African markets. Today, we reinforce our strategic relationship and commit to increased
operational stability, by securing our revenue streams into the next decade, and leveraging our
shared innovation to deliver critical connectivity and support digital inclusion across the African
continent. We are excited by the next phase of our commercial partnership and welcome the
opportunity to work constructively for the benefit of the end user.”
MTN Group President and CEO Ralph Mupita said: “The renewal of the various contracts
across our markets into the next decade put MTN operations in the respective markets onto a
more sustainable footing. We remain focused on ensuring our networks are well invested, have
high availability and have the headroom to meet the growing and structural demand for data
going into the future. These renewals are key to those priorities. We look forward to working
constructively with IHS on the outstanding governance issues now that commercial
arrangements have been concluded.”
Building on their 20+ year relationship as commercial partners, both companies will leverage
their shared operational excellence and engineering expertise to meet the end users’ increasingly
sophisticated data demands. Together, IHS Towers and MTN Group have a track record of
navigating complex operating environments and challenging macroeconomic conditions to
deliver connectivity crucial to economic growth and digital inclusion.
