Global payment processor Mastercard Inc will invest $100 million in Airtel Africa’s mobile money operations, valuing the business at $2.65 billion, the London-listed company said on Thursday.
 
Airtel Africa is targeting a public listing of Airtel Mobile Commerce BV (AMC BV) within the next four years. Earlier this month, private equity firm TPG’s The Rise Fund invested $200 million in AMC BV.
 
Airtel Africa, which offers Airtel Money in Nigeria in partnership with a local bank, said it aims to have all mobile money operations to be owned and operated by AMC BV…
 
More details through:
https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL4N2LU1TB

Telecommunications firm, Airtel Africa, has struck deals with Helios Towers for the sale of its towers in Madagascar and Malawi for a combined $108 million, alongside agreeing on exclusive negotiations over similar assets in two other markets.
 
The operator noted that the two sealed deals were standalone transactions, which are expected to close in Q4 subject to regulatory approval. As is common in tower agreements, the seller agreed to lease back access to the sites.
 
The two contracts, according to a statement, cover a combined 1,299 towers but also include an obligation on Airtel Africa to build a further 195 sites across the two countries within three years of completion at a cost to Helios Towers of a further $11 million…
 
More details through:
https://guardian.ng/business-services/airtel-africa-helios-towers-sign-108m-asset-sale-deal/
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Active subscriptions for Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service in the country rose by 60 per cent in 2020 as the operators added a total of 99,536 new customers in the year.
 
This brought the total active users of the service in the country to 265,604 as of December 2020 from 166,068 recorded in December 2019. Otherwise referred to as IP Telephony or Internet Telephony, VoIP allows its users to do seamless communication without the need for telephones.
 
However, subscription to this service is still very low in Nigeria. According to data released by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), only two operators are currently offering the service in Nigeria and that include Smile Communications  and Ntel…
 
More details through:
https://www.newtelegraphng.com/active-voip-subscriptions-rise-by-60/
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Airtel Africa Plc has signed an agreement under which The Rise Fund, the global impact investing platform of leading alternative investment firm TPG, will invest $200 million in Airtel Mobile Commerce BV (AMC BV), a wholly owned subsidiary of Airtel Africa Plc…
 
More details through:
https://businessday.ng/companies/article/the-rise-fund-to-invest-200m-in-airtel-africas-mobile-money-business/
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A 34-year-old member of one of the biggest evangelical churches in Nigeria, Zoe Odunayo, faced a challenge one Saturday as she planned to participate in a healing service the church was streaming. It was going to be a three-hour service, which meant she would need to stream the service with her limited data bundle. The most she had bought from MTN on data was N2000 for 4.5GB.
 
“My only option was to go and participate from one of the viewing centres the church set up around my location,” Odunlaye said.  The church estimated that over 3.4 billion people would stream the three-day service from around the world, with Nigeria contributing over 10 million of the total viewers…
 
More details through:
https://businessday.ng/life-arts/article/nigerias-streaming-industry-booms-but-data-cost-slows-growth/

MTN Nigeria has announced the acquisition of additional 10MHz spectrum in the 800MHz band from Intercellular Nigeria Limited. The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) approved the transaction and assigned the frequency to MTN Nigeria.
 
The leading mobile telcoms operator said the acquisition will significantly improve customer experience, in line with its commitment to deliver excellent service quality to subscribers. Commenting on the acquisition, Karl Toriola, Chief Executive Officer, MTN Nigeria said, “Through this acquisition, we will be better positioned to support the deepening of broadband penetration in the country…
 
More details through:
https://www.sunnewsonline.com/mtn-nigeria-acquires-additional-800mhz-spectrum-2/

Nigerians now consume 80,000 terabytes of internet data every month says Umar Garba Danbatta, executive vice-chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). The 80,000 terabytes (TB) amount to 800,000,000 Gigabytes (GB) which if shared with Nigeria’s 108.27 million unique internet users comes to 7.3GB per user on a monthly basis…
 
More details through:
https://businessday.ng/technology/article/nigerians-now-use-80000-terabytes-of-internet-monthly-above-ssa-average/
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A recent report published by We Are Social and Hootsuite has shown that Nigeria maintains high record of internet usage, but with very low download speeds. According to the report, the download speeds could be attributed to the capacity of devices used for downloads as well as the type of internet connectivity services provided by Internet Service Providers (ISPs).
 
According to the report, with a population of over 208 million people in Nigeria, the total number of internet users is 104.4 million, which is about 50 per cent of the population, yet the average download speed of mobile internet connections is as low as 18.4 megabytes per second (mbps) and the average download speed of fixed internet connections is also as low as 16.07 mbps…
 
More details through:
https://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2021/02/25/report-nigeria-records-high-internet-usage-low-download-speed/

Metro fibre concentrations networks in Nigeria account for less than 25 per cent of the total fibre distances in the country, a report has revealed.
 
The networks are concentrated in major cities such as Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, and within Edo and Ogun states while other locations remain unserved or underserved.
 
The report by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) reveals that access of fibre networks within 5 kilometers of the population currently stands at an average of approximately 39 per cent reach with a high of 85 per cent in Lagos State and a low of 12 per cent in Jigawa State…
 
More details through:
https://guardian.ng/business-services/metro-fibre-networks-account-for-25-of-sectors-infrastructure/
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Ten years after the replacement of the country’s first communication satellite, NigComSat 1, the Federal Government has budgeted N3.1 billion for another satellite, NigComSat 2, this year. According to the approved 2021 budget, this will be the main capital project for the country’s satellite company this year.
 
This is coming even as stakeholders continue to lament the underutilisation of the current satellite, NigCom- Sat-1R. The replacement satellite, which was launched in 2011, has a lifespan of 15 years, meaning that it has five years left. Aside the new satellite project, the satellite company will also this year spend N500 million on the upgrade of its ground station, according to the 2021 budget.
 
Before his exit in 2019, the immediate past Minister of Communications, Barrister Adebayo Shittu, had insisted that Nigeria needed two new satellites to act as a backup for the current one. He had announced plans to approach China-Exim Bank to secure a loan of $550 million for the purpose…
 
More details through:
https://www.newtelegraphng.com/nigeria-set-to-acquire-another-satellite/
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