MTN Nigerian Communication Ltd., the
country’s biggest mobile phone provider,
said it got a $3 billion loan from a group of
17 local banks and seven foreign lenders
to upgrade infrastructure.
The facility, which has a seven-year
repayment plan, will fund expansion from
2013 to 2015, with more than $1.5 billion
to be spent this year, Chief Executive Officer
Brett Goschen told reporters in Lagos today.
“The loan comprises $1.8 billion in
additional financing and $1.2 billion in
restructuring and rollover of existing
facilities,” he said.
Nigerian mobile phone operators are
investing in their networks to overcome
frequent power cuts and the sabotage of
facilities in the country’s mainly Muslim
north, where Islamist militants target
telecommunications companies for helping
the authorities to track them.
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation with
more than 160 million people, had about
155 million telephone subscribers as of
January, according to the Nigerian
Communications Commission. MTN Nigerian,
the local unit of Johannesburg-based MTN
Group Ltd. (MTN), is the market leader with
47 million subscribers as of the end of last
year, according to data on the NCC’s
website.
Nigerian banks led by Guaranty Trust Bank
Plc (GUARANTY) provided $2.1 billion of the
facility to MTN Nigerian, with overseas
institutions including Canada’s Export
Development Bank and the Industrial &
Commercial Bank of China (601398) lending
$900 million, MTN Nigerian’s Chief Financial
Officer Andrew Bing said.
Analysts are forecasting increased
competition between the biggest operators
in Nigeria after the NCC allowed users to
switch providers without losing their
phone numbers in a new ruling on April 22.
Nigeria’s Globacom Ltd. and the local unit of
Mumbai-based Bharti Airtel (BHARTI)
compete for second place in the market
with 24 million and 23 million users
respectively.

SOURCE: http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-23/mtn-nigeria-gets-3-billion-bank-loan-for-network-expansion.html