The CEO of MTN Nigeria, Karl Toriola, has revealed the company’s plans for periodic reviews of its tower contracts, aiming to enhance efficiency and ensure optimal performance from vendors.
This decision follows the recent award of tower contracts to ATC, with another 1,500 site contracts set for renewal in the near future.
Speaking at MTN Nigeria’s Capital Markets Day in Abuja on November 14th and 15th, Toriola stated, “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.”
The company’s Chief Financial Officer, Modupe Kadri, supported Toriola’s stance during his presentation, providing a breakdown of MTN Nigeria’s current tower business. Kadri highlighted the significance of energy efficiency initiatives and independent power projects (IPP) in achieving excellent delivery of the company’s expense efficiency programme.
“IHS currently has 14.6k sites (80%) as against ATC’s 2.3k’s (13%). 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,” Kadri explained.
“This will reduce IHS’ portfolio to 12.1k sites (66%) and increase ATC to 4.7k (26%) of the entire portfolio. Tower contract renegotiation, supported by disciplined capital allocation, is very important in mitigating the impact of forex liberalization and higher energy costs.”
Toriola utilized the Capital Markets Day event to announce the progress made on achieving the company’s ‘Ambition 2025’ Strategy and shed light on emerging opportunities in Nigeria’s digital economy.
Toriola also utilized the Capital Markets Day event to announce the progress made on achieving the company’s ‘Ambition 2025’ Strategy and highlighted emerging opportunities in Nigeria’s digital economy to local and international investors.
“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 Capital Markets Day provided an opportunity for local and international investors to engage with high-level representatives of the Nigerian government on the country’s macroeconomic reforms.
MTN Nigeria executives offered a comprehensive overview of the company’s progress against key growth indicators outlined in the ‘Ambition 2025’ strategy.
