Pan African Towers Limited (PAT), a leading telecoms infrastructure and wireless service provider, has raised an undisclosed amount of debt funding from the Nigeria Infrastructure Debt Fund (NIDF), managed by Chapel Hill Denham.
The debt financing is being used by Pan African Towers to achieve its aggressive growth plan to reach all parts of Nigeria. Pan African Towers aims to deploy up to 35,000 towers within the next five years to help bridge the broadband coverage gap in Nigeria and accelerate Nigeria’s strong appetite for next generation mobile broadband growth and internet penetration.
Adebayo Shittu, Nigeria’s former minister of communication and Umar Garba Danbatta, the executive vice chairman of the NCC, the regulatory body for Nigeria’s communication sector, are of the opinion that the country requires around 70,000 to 80,000 towers to ensure proper quality and coverage for 4G and 5G technology. Nigeria currently has close to 30,000 towers; as a result, there is room for enormous growth in the sector.
Nigeria Infrastructure Debt Fund, managed by Chapel Hill Denham, is Africa’s and Nigeria’s first listed infrastructure debt fund. The fund is structured to enable domestic long-term savings such as pension and retirement assets to be safely channelled into productive infrastructure assets in the country. While supporting commercially attractive projects, NIDF enables its investors to benefit from the predictable returns available from long dated infrastructure debt investments.
Commenting on the transaction, Wole Abu, CEO of Pan African Towers, said: “We are excited to have NIDF as our long-term financing partner. A key aspect of the transaction is that the funds are denominated in the local currency, which harmonises with our overall strategic goal of delivering affordable and financially sustainable telecom services to the Nigeria people.
“The NIDF team’s ability to structure bespoke transactions using global-standard project finance techniques, while working within an expedited timeframe, is extremely impressive. This is a major milestone in our business and we look forward to more synergies in the relationship.”
Anshul Rai, CEO, Nigeria Infrastructure Debt Fund said: ‘Availability of long-term financing is critical for sustainable infrastructure development in Nigeria. By channelling institutional capital into productive assets, NIDF is supporting the country’s strategic imperatives of adding to its infrastructure stock as well as providing the enabling services that are critical for both economic diversification and social development. Sponsors such as PAT have taken the prudent decision of matching the currency of their financing with the currency of their revenues (both being Naira), thus significantly improving the overall risk profile of these projects.’
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