West African solar-based internet and voice service provider Tizeti says it is set to expand its operations within Nigeria and Ghana and move into Cote d’Ivoire and Togo. It is also considering listing its Nigerian subsidiary.
Speaking at the second edition of Tizeti’s annual event, tagged NeXTGEN 2.0: The Next Frontier, the founder and CEO of Tizeti, Kendall Ananyi, pointed out that the company has been providing affordable unlimited internet service in Nigeria and Ghana using solar towers. This, he said, has brought about 30-50 percent cost savings on data cap plans and made it the preferred option for its competitors.
He also stressed that the broadband gap in Africa is still very high and operators like Tizeti must expand to ensure affordable, reliable internet access.
Although the company has over 3,884 hotspot locations and 2.8 million users in Nigeria, and delivers over 190TBPS of data a day, Ananyi feels there is room for growth in a continent where internet users are still about 26% of the total population, with almost 900 million people unconnected.
Thus, with over 2.8 million subscribers on its platform, a revenue of over N11 billion (about US$ 26.3 million) over 10 years, and no debt, the firm is exploring an initial public offering (IPO) on the stock market. It’s also setting its eyes on expanding its footprint across the Francophone and Anglophone countries in West Africa.
`”We are now exploring the public markets for equity/debt to fund our next growth phase,” Ananyi said, adding: “We have reserved our ticker at NASDAQ, and are exploring London Stock Exchange as well as the Nigerian Exchange NGX.”
Source: https://developingtelecoms.com/telecom-business/13855-tizeti-plans-west-african-expansion.html