Olufemi Adeyemi
Pan African Towers (PAT) has announced a strategic investment from Development Partners International (DPI), a premier investment firm focused on Africa, and Verod Capital (Verod), one of the continent’s leading investment management firms.DPI and Verod are investing in PAT to fuel its continued
growth and will work with management to build on the company’s recent
achievements and reaffirm its position as Nigeria’s largest homegrown digital
infrastructure provider.
Established in Nigeria in 2017 to capitalise on the growing
demand for wireless communications across Africa, PAT has emerged as a
prominent telecommunications and tower infrastructure provider in Nigeria,
playing an indispensable role in the nationwide expansion of mobile
communications.
Since founding, PAT has built a successful business model
centred around establishing tailored, long-term contracts with blue-chip
customers, including Nigeria’s leading mobile network operators (MNOs) and
internet service providers (ISPs).
The success and strong performance of the company to date
has further accelerated under the leadership of Chief Executive Azeez Amida,
who has a strong track record of executing successful growth strategies in
emerging market telecommunications.
Nigeria is an attractive market for digital infrastructure
in Africa. Underpinned by its strong demographics, it is Africa’s leading
telecommunications market by number of mobile subscribers (208m) and
contributed 13% of national GDP in 2021 compared to 8% in 2015.
As of December 2021, there were 41,120 towers in Nigeria
mostly supporting third generation (3G) and fourth generation (4G) technology
across the country. However, according to Nigeria’s Ministry of Communications,
the country needs between 70,000 to 80,000 towers to enable proper quality and
coverage for 4G and 5G technology, creating a supply gap of more than 30,000
towers.
This investment will enable PAT to capitalise on this
opportunity and help close this gap, providing world-class digital
infrastructure to support Africa’s economic development.
Azeez Amida, CEO of Pan African Towers, said: “As a proud
Nigerian-founded and run business, Pan African Towers is on a mission to
accelerate the Nigerian market and support the growth of the mobile
telecommunications sector in the country.
“We also have a clear strategic vision to grow the business
sustainably, including actively reducing the carbon footprint of our network to
uphold best-in-class ESG practices. We are excited to partner with DPI and
Verod and will leverage their sector experience and market expertise to help us
achieve these goals.
“The evolution of Nigeria’s mobile and wireless industry
presents significant opportunities for our business, and we look forward to
being a part of this next chapter of growth.”
PAT’s experienced management team will work closely with DPI
and Verod to accelerate its strategic plan, leveraging their expertise in areas
such as market entry, operational efficiency, and talent management. With the
support of both investors, PAT will deepen relationships with existing
partners, expand its customer base, and grow its footprint of towers to reach
new parts of the country where mobile and wireless penetration remains low.
PAT will also benefit from DPI’s experience in scaling
towers companies, as the first institutional investor in Eaton Towers, another
of Africa’s leading telecoms businesses it exited in 2019.
Adefolarin Ogunsanya, Partner at DPI, said: “Pan African
Towers is an exciting homegrown business with significant potential and is
uniquely positioned to benefit from the opportunity presented by Nigeria’s
digital innovation boom. We are incredibly excited to partner with PAT’s
management team to help crystallize the Company’s vision of becoming Nigeria’s
digital infrastructure provider of choice and look forward to sharing our deep
knowledge and experience of Africa’s towers industry and the Nigerian market to
help achieve this.”
Daniel Adeoye, Principal and Head of Investments at Verod
Capital, said: “The Nigerian demographic is currently experiencing a surge in
data consumption and related services, driven by a generation of tech-savvy
digital natives that are unparalleled.
“The ‘Verod Consumer Spend Index’ indicates that
telecommunication expenses are increasing significantly, providing a tailwind
for tower companies like PAT. Verod is delighted to support PAT’s management
with ample capital and value-creation expertise to navigate this period of
growth.”