The AIIM, Adenia and IFC consortium announced Tuesday, June 29, to have taken a majority stake in Eastcastle, a specialist in the management of telecommunications towers in Africa. This transaction will allow these 3 entities to provide financial support of $ 130 million to Eastcastle. This in order to support the strategy of tailor-made construction of the company in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria and Ivory Coast.
The agreement will also increase the number of towers in the region, accelerate the deployment of bandwidth-intensive technologies such as 3G, 4G and 5G and improve quality connectivity for individuals and businesses. companies.
“Investing in Africa’s digital infrastructure is more important than ever to meet the growing demand for data and enable Africa’s digital economy,” said Ed Stumpf, chief investment officer at AIIM.
For his part, Peter Lewis, co-founder of Eastcastle said: “We are particularly pleased with the strong support from the most experienced investors in African towers and infrastructure”.
This operation takes place in a context where data consumption in Africa is skyrocketing. It is expected to quadruple by 2025, experts say, with 200 million new mobile internet users expected. Mobile operators using bandwidth-hungry technologies such as 3G, 4G and 5G are expected to account for more than 85% of connections by 2025, up from around 38% in 2017.
AIIM is one of Africa’s largest infrastructure fund managers, currently managing $ 2 billion in assets across renewables, power, digital infrastructure and more.
Established in 2020, Eastcastle has structured and successfully completed fourteen acquisitions and disposals of African telecommunications towers. The most recent being the sale of Eaton Towers’s operations in Ghana, Uganda, Kenya, Niger and Burkina Faso to American Tower for $ 1.85 billion.
