Millicom, a leading provider of fixed and mobile telecommunications services in Latin America, has announced that its subsidiary, the operator Tigo Colombia, has agreed to sell approximately 1100 wireless communications towers to affiliates of investment funds managed by KKR, a leading global investment firm.

KKR plans to work in partnership with NEXO LatAm, a digital infrastructure platform that supports the implementation of KKR’s infrastructure strategy throughout Latin America.

As is increasingly the case in recent years, the sale has a lease component that allows the seller to go on using some of the towers without the expense of managing them.

Thus, as part of the transaction, Tigo Colombia and KKR have entered into a long-term agreement whereby KKR will lease wireless communications towers to Tigo Colombia to support its wireless networks, although how many has not yet been revealed.

The exact number of towers will be determined once the various closings have taken place, which are subject to customary closing conditions.

For Millicom this is clearly an important strategic decision. Mauricio Ramos, CEO and Chairman of the Board of Millicom, explains: “This transaction with KKR, a leading digital infrastructure franchise with deep sector expertise and commitment to the region, is another step towards crystallising the value of our tower sites across Latin America, simplifying our business, and allowing us to focus on servicing our customers.”

He continues: “This transaction enhances our operational and capital efficiency in Colombia, with long-term lease obligations denominated in Colombian pesos, consistent with our objective of increasing our proportion of financing in local currency.”

The somewhat confusing saga of debts that may be owed by Nigeria’s second-biggest operator to its biggest has taken a new twist as Globacom has been granted an additional 21 days to pay the interconnect fees owed to rival operator MTN.

If it does not, it could face a network disconnection scheduled by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

As online news source Connecting Africa explains, this extension, starting from 17 January, is apparently because, according to an NCC announcement “the parties have now reached an agreement to resolve all outstanding issues between them ».

In fact the Commission expects MTN and Globacom to resolve all outstanding issues within the 21 days offered.

If correct, this may imply a change of heart from Globacom, given our report earlier this month that a company representative suggested it did not owe MTN interconnection fees estimated at the equivalent of US$1.8 million. 

The NCC clearly didn’t agree with this argument and issued a disconnection notice to Globacom.  This would have meant that Globacom customers could not call users on the MTN network, although they would still be able to receive MTN calls – and calls between Globacom’s own subscribers would not have been affected.

However, this isn’t the first interconnection charges issue involving Globacom. As Connecting Africa points out, in 2019 MTN partially disconnected Globacom subscribers over an estimated US$5 million worth of unpaid interconnection fees. Globacom partially repaid these and committed to pay the rest.

In the same year, according to Nigeria’s Premium Times news service, NCC granted number three operator Airtel an approval to partially disconnect Globacom from its network, again because of Globacom’s alleged failure to settle interconnect debts.

Some upgrades, some new builds, and some coral reefs: … [visit site to read more]

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It has been widely reported in the Indian press that Tata Communications Transformation Services (TCTS), a subsidiary of Indian digital ecosystem enabler Tata Communications, has issued a service contract  termination notice to operator Vodafone Idea (aka Vi) after the company did not pay TCTS on time.

Tata Communications is apparently in discussion about a disengagement transition plan with Vodafone Idea, though it has not named the operator specifically.

A notice to the stock exchange suggested that the carrying amount of trade receivables from the operator may have been Rs 221.19 crores (about US$26.6 million) in December 2023.

As news reports point out, TCTS handles maintenance work for Vodafone Idea’s fibre assets. However, Vodafone Idea has apparently offered an assurance that customer services will remain unaffected despite the termination of the service contract by TCTS. The work will now be brought in-house.

What may be more significant in this case is that this is a big vendor withdrawing its services to Vodafone Idea over non-payment, which does not seem to have happened to the operator before.

What this says about Vodafone Idea’s financial situation is unclear. News reports suggest that the operator is clearing its debt obligations to lenders and banks. However, some payments owed to vendors are apparently being delayed. 

We have already mentioned Vodafone Idea’s issues with Indus Towers (which led to threats to restrict service, though not their outright withdrawal). The operator also needs to pay other vendors such as American Tower Corp (ATC), Nokia and Ericsson. And, of course, it needs to find money for 5G rollout given the ground it has lost to competitors Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio.

Ukheshe International, a South African fintech enablement partner with an expanding footprint in key emerging markets, has acquired EFT Corporation, an Africa-focused payment and e-commerce solutions provider, from parent Loita Transaction Services (LXS), a pan-African payment solutions and financial switching provider.

The businesses say they will continue to operate as separate entities and maintain their respective brand identities for the foreseeable future. They add that the partnership ensures EFTCorp’s customers will continue to engage with a trusted brand while gaining access to an expanded suite of innovative digital services through Ukheshe.

As a 23-year-old pioneer of digital payments in 35 African markets supporting over 100 banks and processors, EFTCorp is known for its core switching skills and issuer processor technology. Ukheshe’s offerings encompass a comprehensive range of end-to-end digital services that assist in digitising banking partners.

This deal allows the wider group to access new technologies and opportunities in a diverse market, enhancing exposure to different customers, projects and business opportunities across Africa and the Middle East.

Ukheshe says that its expertise in digital onboarding, know your customer (KYC), digital wallets, and various payment channels will open new opportunities to digitise EFTCorp’s traditional customers who rely on established electronic payment processing systems.

Ukheshe has certainly been active in this market in recent years. This transaction follows on from Ukheshe’s 2022 acquisition of Masterpass, Mastercard’s QR code payments service, in South Africa, and the closing of a funding partnership with Development Partners International (DPI) in 2023, not to mention Ukheshe’s 2020 purchase of Oltio from Mastercard. Oltio developed the digital payments platform for Masterpass.

More recently, in 2021, Ukheshe Technologies and Infobip, a global cloud communications platform, developed what they called South Africa’s very first WhatsApp payment gateway.

It remains to be seen whether this latest deal is, as Ukheshe claims, “a significant move for the African fintech ecosystem”, let alone “a landmark deal that positions the new group for market dominance”. But Ukheshe clearly has major ambitions in this market.

As co-founder and CEO Clayton Hayward says, “The market is ripe for consolidation and disruption; bringing together these like-minded executive teams and our great products positions us to dominate the African continent as  the preferred banking solutions partner.”