Internet firm Tizeti gets Chapel Hill Denham loan to expand to Abuja, others

Internet company Tizeti says it has obtained an undisclosed long-term financing from Chapel Hill Denham to finance its planned rollout across 15 Nigerian states.

The credit from Denham’s Nigeria Infrastructure Debt Fund will be deployed to building new internet infrastructure and purchasing additional equipment to expand Tizeti services to Delta, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Abia, Anambra, Imo, Enugu, Abuja, Kano, and Kaduna, the Lagos-based firm said Tuesday.

Tizeti says it currently serves over 3 million subscribers in Nigeria (residential facilities, businesses and hotspot users), via its wide network of solar-powered base stations in five states.

What they are saying: 

Anshul Rai, the Chief Executive Officer of NIDF, said, “Chapel Hill Denham is excited to partner Tizeti in the expansion of fast, reliable broadband network across Nigeria. Digital economy is a key strategic pillar for Nigeria to accelerate its economic and social development, and providing access to affordable internet services is crucial to achieve the true potential of digitisation. We continue to work with all stakeholders to support accelerated development of digital infrastructure in Nigeria by providing access to long-term, Naira-denominated financing for such projects – thus realising the government’s vision of reaching 70% broadband penetration by 2025.”

Tizeti’s founder and Chief Executive Officer, Kendall Ananyi, commented, “We are excited to announce the closing of this new debt facility with Nigeria’s largest infrastructure debt fund. We see tremendous opportunity for domestic capital in addressing digital exclusion barriers in Nigeria and this partnership will hopefully be one of many. We will use this to build last-mile digital infrastructure that will move internet capacity to other Nigerian states and catalyze sustained development, value creation, improved connectivity, and a deeper and wider digital inclusion net. This will also increase our coverage from 5 states and make us the largest internet service provider in Nigeria by coverage”.

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Tizeti announced in February that it was launching its 4G LTE network in 10 states, with unlimited broadband connectivity at an introductory offer of N30,000 for monthly fixed broadband and installation costs. It also announced plans recruit staff for the explansion.

Nigeria Infrastructure Debt Fund is Nigeria’s largest and Africa’s first-ever listed infrastructure fund, providing long-term, Naira-denominated financing for infrastructure projects in Nigeria. NIDF enables project sponsors to avoid the unsustainable mismatches of currency and tenor between their financing and their revenues/cash flows. It has a capital base of over N92 billion.