By Pan African Towers (PAT), a digital infrastructure company based in Nigeria, has gone into a strategic investment from Development Partners International (DPI), an investment firm focused on Africa, and Verod Capital (Verod), an investment management firms. DPI and Verod are investing in PAT to fuel its continued growth.
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.
Commenting on the development, Mr 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.
Also speaking, 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.”
And 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.”
