As MTN Group and IHS Towers renew and extend communications infrastructure deals in Nigeria, as well as renewing all contracts across IHS Towers-MTN markets, the parties are constructively working on finding a mutually agreeable resolution to governance issues previously raised by MTN.

On August 7, the companies announced the agreement to renew and extend all Nigerian tower master lease agreements until December 2032, firmly establishing a commercial relationship for the next decade.

“We look forward to working constructively with IHS on the outstanding governance issues now that commercial arrangements have been concluded,” said MTN Group president and CEO Ralph Mupita.

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 completed the renewal of about 26 000 MTN tenancies on IHS Towers infrastructure across six African markets, namely Nigeria, Rwanda, Côte d’Ivoire, Cameroon, Zambia and South Africa.

MTN Group owns about 26% in IHS Towers, a stake which pre-dates the tower company’s listing on the New York Stock Exchange in 2021.

“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.”

“These renewals are key to those priorities. 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,” Mupita said.

“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,” added IHS Towers chairperson and CEO Sam Darwish.

“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. 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.”

Building on their more than 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.