Through successful negotiations, MTN Nigeria Communications was able to secure terms that strengthen the company's financial and operational stability in its tower lease agreements with IHS Nigeria, INT Towers, IHS Towers NG (collectively, IHS), and ATC Nigeria.

On August 7, MTN Nigeria disclosed in an exchange filing that the company and IHS had renegotiated the commercial terms of their master lease and infrastructure-sharing contracts.

About 13,500 tenancy contracts, as well as all tower master leasing agreements in Nigeria, are renewed and extended by the arrangement with IHS Nigeria. In reference to the roughly 2,500 MTN Nigeria leases that are scheduled to expire at the end of 2024 and in 2025, IHS Towers has announced that it will extend 1,430 leases (including new colocations).

The updated contracts prolong the current arrangements through December 31, 2032, with effect from April 1, 2024. The site leases were scheduled to expire at different times between December 2024 and December 2029, with the majority expiring in 2029, prior to the renegotiation.

Reducing the US dollar-indexed portion of the leases, making them primarily naira-based, and restricting the naira CPI escalator are some of the major modifications. Additionally, new upgrade charges are now based on tower space and power utilization, replacing the previous technology-based pricing structure. According to the official announcement, the renegotiated terms also include built-in discounts and incentives over the contract period, as well as an energy cost component related to diesel prices.

In a similar step, as announced in September 2023, MTN Nigeria, ATC, and IHS came to an understanding about the distribution of roughly 2,500 tower sites that ATC was granted from the IHS portfolio. Up to 2,100 sites will now be managed by ATC and up to 1,400 sites by IHS, including 1,000 new sites that MTN Nigeria intends to launch in the upcoming years.