NatCom Development & Investment Limited, owners of Ntel the latest entrant to Nigeria’s telecommunications market says it is making investments of up to $1 billion over the next four years in Nigeria as it prepares to roll out commercial operations in four days.
“We have laid 200 km of metro fibre in Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt,” chief executive officer (CEO), Kamar Abass, told BusinessDay in Lagos on Friday.
“We are building an enormously complex network that will transform people’s lives. We want to make sure every customer with 3G can get 4G as well” Abass said.
Ntel currently has over 600 base stations in place for the roll out, according to Abass.
NatCom paid $252.3 million to acquire telecom assets, previously operated by NiTel/MTel.
The assets acquired include: National Carrier; International Gateway; and Digital Mobile licenses. A cellular mobile and microwave spectrum, tower sites, telephone exchanges, satellite earth stations and metro fibre ducts and intercity fibre rights of way.
Its seeming late entrance to a market with four other major operators and other minor ones is Ntels biggest selling point according to Abass.
“Timing is the biggest factor in our advantage as we can do what existing operators cannot do with respect to spectrum refarming, our new set of products which enables customers to be enlivened by 4G, Voice over LTE or VOLTE that gives crystal clear high definition voice calls, superfast connection times and better battery life,” Abass said.
“We will also provide better experience on video and super fast data connections.”
The growth in broadband is also an opportunity for Ntel, with projections that there will be 200 million mobile broadband customers in Nigeria by 2020, from under 30 million today.
Ntel will raise money for its investment push from a combination of sources including debt and equity provided it is optimal.
“We are speaking to investors and banks committed to investing in a growth sector,” Abass said.
“When they understand the underlying demand in this market, they are often willing to play.”
Nigeria’s Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector has grown exponentially since the licensing of GSM operators in 2001 and has become the leading mobile telephony market in Africa, in terms of subscriber base and revenue and today contributes $52 billion annually to nominal GDP.
The resultant increase in investor confidence led to an abundant inflow of foreign direct investment (FDI) of over $32b over the last 14 years.
The sector grew by 11.01 percent (year-on year) in the fourth quarter of 2015, and contributed 10.37 percent to total nominal GDP for the period, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
“We have every single clearance that we need from the regulator NCC to roll out services in Nigeria on April 08,” said Abass.
PATRICK ATUANYA
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