Pan-African telecommunications agency Airtel Africa has reportedly stopped investing in new tower infrastructure in Kenya, and different markets throughout the continent, because it prepares to promote most of its already-existing infrastructure belongings.
That is in efforts to scale back possession of infrastructure as Airtel Africa seems to be in direction of leasing as an alternative.
The Worldwide Finance Company (IFC), which is funding Airtel Africa, said in an funding disclosure that Airtel is trying to deal with a cost-saving “asset-light enterprise mannequin” and has “divested most of its telecommunications tower portfolio” with the telecom operator now apparently within the ultimate levels of divesting nearly all of its remaining tower portfolio to different tower firms.
“Airtel Africa at the moment maintains a restricted variety of strategic tower websites (roughly 2,500) throughout its enterprise, and presently has no foreseeable plans to materially develop its owned towers portfolio,” IFC mentioned.
IFC additionally experiences that Airtel Africa is at the moment in talks with impartial telecom tower firms with a purpose to safe the leasing of area on the present infrastructure of those firms and for the development of latest towers particular to Airtel’s enterprise necessities, which might make the telco an “anchor tenant.”
The information of Airtel Africa divesting in infrastructure comes after reports earlier in March that its Nigerian arm – Airtel Nigeria – had upgraded all of its 2G and 3G cell websites within the West African nation to 4G know-how.
On the time, Surendran Chemmenkotil, CEO and MD of Airtel Nigeria, mentioned the operator was dedicated to delivering cellular broadband to the entire nation, together with even distant places, as he says that connectivity has a direct correlation with “boosting the nation’s GDP.”
It’s not but identified whether or not Airtel Nigeria will likely be included within the firm’s market-wide divesting plan, or if the corporate will hold its present Nigerian cell websites amongst its 2,500 websites.
