Documents filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission on February 18 show that MTN will maintain pay and core benefits for IHS employees for one year after the merger takes effect.

IHS had 2,864 employees worldwide as of December 31, 2024. Many of them work in Nigeria, where both companies play major roles in telecoms infrastructure.

Under the agreement, MTN must keep compensation and benefits at levels no less favourable than those in place before the deal closes. The protection period is described in Section 6.7 of the Agreement and Plan of Merger as a 12-month “Continuation Period”.

During that time, base salaries or hourly wages will remain in place. Short-term cash incentives must stay comparable. Health, retirement and welfare benefits must also stay similar in overall value. Defined benefit pensions and some local post-employment benefits are excluded.

MTN has also agreed to honour existing IHS severance terms. Any employee who loses their job during the protection period will receive severance benefits no less favourable than those already provided under IHS policies.

The company will recognise prior years of service for benefit eligibility, vesting and holiday accrual. Staff will not see their tenure reset after the merger.

Equity awards will be handled in cash. Vested stock options and restricted stock units are expected to be cancelled and converted into cash payments based on the merger price.

Unvested awards may be converted into cash-based retention incentives that continue to vest on their original schedules.

The acquisition is structured as an all-cash transaction at $8.50 per share. That represents a 239% premium to IHS’s share price at the start of its 2024 strategic review and a 36% premium to its 52-week average.

The deal excludes IHS’s Latin American assets. It focuses on Africa, the Middle East and selected emerging markets.

Funding will come from $1.1 billion in cash already on IHS’s balance sheet and another $1.1 billion from MTN’s liquidity and debt capacity.

IHS owns and manages about 39,000 telecom towers across Africa, the Middle East and Latin America. Nigeria is its largest market.

If completed, the transaction will bring those towers under closer control of MTN. The company will rely less on third-party tower operators and will also gain stronger management over passive mobile infrastructure across its footprint.

Reports say this could help MTN cut operating expenses, improve network reliability and speed up 5G rollout in key African markets. It also places MTN in a stronger position against competitors such as Airtel Africa and Orange.

Regulators in Nigeria and other countries are expected to examine the deal as towers are critical national infrastructure. Labour authorities are also likely to monitor how the 12-month pay and benefits guarantee is carried out, especially in markets where both firms employ large workforces.

The offer provides immediate cash at a premium for IHS Towers shareholders and secures long-term control of essential infrastructure for MTN, which underpins its network operations.

The post MTN to Guarantee 12 Months’ Pay as It Moves to Acquire IHS Towers appeared first on Tech | Business | Economy.

But then, here we are. The sector’s contribution to the economy is so massive that ignoring it would be like pretending petrol isn’t essential to your car just because the tank is full.

It grew at a real rate of 5.78% in Q3 2025 and accounted for roughly 9.1% of GDP, proving that even in a country notorious for regulatory tangles and infrastructural challenges, telecoms are the backbone of modern Nigeria.

But don’t be deceived by these figures, there’s still a world of congestion, fibre cuts, high expenses, and millions of frustrated subscribers tapping the screen for just one uninterrupted call.

Subscriber Growth and Broadband Penetration: Two Extremes

Active mobile subscriptions hit ~169.3 million in January, growing steadily to 175 million by December, nudging teledensity past 80%, the highest since early 2024. 

We could call this progress since Nigerians are connecting, surfing, streaming, and transacting digitally more than ever. Broadband adoption, too, edged towards 50%, with nearly 49.9% penetration by December 2025, inching closer to the National Broadband Plan’s 70% target.

However, numbers can be deceiving. While urban dwellers bask in fibre-optic speeds and 4G coverage, rural users are fighting with patchy signals and pricey data, nudging us that half the population is still a click away from the digital economy.

Investment, Tariffs, and Infrastructure

Telecom operators collectively poured ~₦824.7 billion into network expansion in H1 2025 alone. Add $1 billion in projected infrastructure investment and the government’s approval of 7,000 new towers, and it looks like Nigeria’s networks are finally meeting up with demand.

Tariff reforms, including a 50 % headroom on pricing, spurred roughly $2 billion in equipment imports, showing serious investor assurance. 

Still, operators battled record operational costs of ~₦5.85 trillion, thanks to energy expenses, multiple taxes, and the notorious Right of Way fees. Growth may be visible on the surface, but the price of keeping the lights, and signals, on is still a big issue.

Technology Deployment: 4G Dominates, 5G Stutters

4G remained king, covering more ground and enabling surges in data consumption. 5G, on the other hand, limped along at ~3.4 % market share, limited by device affordability and limited rollout. 

It’s a classic story where infrastructure exists, purpose exists, but the average Nigerian smartphone wallet does not.

The pledge of next-gen connectivity is there, but the reality is uneven adoption. Even as data usage peaked at 1.15 million terabytes in August, a noteworthy portion of the population is left waiting for the high-speed revolution.

Operator Performance: Leaders, Survivors, and Stragglers

MTN Nigeria retained its crown with ~90.33 million subscribers (~52 % market share). Data revenue surged 69.2 %, while voice grew 40.3 %, enabling MTN to swing from an operating loss in 2024 to a profit in H1 2025. 

The operator also struck a national roaming and spectrum sharing agreement with 9mobile to ease coverage gaps.

Airtel Nigeria was the second-largest operator, hovering around ~58.47 million subscribers (~34 % market share). Its mobile money platform boosted digital revenue, while strategic tariff adjustments helped maintain steady growth.

Globacom recovered modestly to ~21.39 million subscribers (~12 %), but growth lags behind MTN and Airtel, reflecting lingering regulatory and competitive challenges.

9mobile, the smallest operator in terms of numbers, barely moved the needle at ~3.11 million subscribers (~1.8 %). Its mid-year infrastructure-sharing deal with MTN produced minimal subscriber growth, stressing the uphill battle against market authority and service quality issues.

The Dark Side of 2025: Costs, Complaints, and Inequalities

Despite subscriber growth, users complain of slow internet, frequent signal drops, and service congestion. 

Inflation and naira depreciation pushed tariffs higher, leaving low-income households increasingly excluded. Even with near-50% broadband penetration, rural areas lag badly, sustaining a stubborn digital divide.

Infrastructure vandalism and fibre cuts added to the challenge, while regulatory stress and multiple levies, up to 18-20 taxes per service, kept operators constantly on edge. 

Add delayed privatisation of NATCOM and stalled 5G expansion, and it’s apparent that 2025 was a high-wire balancing act, with massive growth shadowed by operational and structural challenges.

Data Usage and Digital Consumption

Data consumption drove Nigeria’s telecom sector growth in 2025. GSM internet subscribers reached 140.36 million, and monthly traffic peaked at 1.15 million terabytes. 

These trends show a high dependency of Nigeria’s population on mobile internet for work, entertainment, education, and finance. It’s a digital sector expanding speedily, even if unevenly.

Policy and Regulatory Space

The government removed a 5% telecom tax mid-year, though analysts warned it wouldn’t automatically lower prices for consumers. 

NCC’s robust monitoring and reporting framework ensured operators stayed accountable, but the environment remained heavy with compliance requirements. 

Regulatory complexity continues to shape strategic decisions, especially for operators outside the top two.

2025 in Summary: Progress with Strings Attached

• The Good: Subscriber numbers hit record highs, broadband approached 50%, GDP contribution remained strong, and 4G/5G coverage expanded steadily.
• The Bad: High operational expenses, affordability limitations, service quality issues, uneven rural coverage, and slow 5G adoption.
• Operator Reality: MTN tops, Airtel holds steady, Globacom recovers slowly, 9mobile struggles.

Nigeria’s telecom sector in 2025 is a study in contrasts, incredible growth and investment, paired with structural and operational challenges. 

If the past year teaches us anything, it’s that subscriber numbers and GDP contribution are not the entire measure of success. Can expansion be turned into reliable, affordable, and inclusive service? So that the mobile revolution benefits not just the urban elite, but the entire nation.

The post Tariff Hikes | Data Surges: The Highs and Lows of Nigeria’s Telecom Sector in 2025 appeared first on Tech | Business | Economy.

The exercise is scheduled for Saturday, August 24, 2025, between 6:00 a.m. and 8:00 a.m. MTN disclosed that 101 sites across 15 Local Government Areas will be affected while engineers switch traffic to a new fibre route along the AFCOT–Bawo Village axis in Adamawa State.

“Due to the linear and unprotected nature of the route, services will be interrupted during the maintenance window. The work will be carried out during daylight hours for security reasons,” the company said in a notice to customers.

The disruption will hit users of 2G, 3G, and 4G networks, including about 10 enterprise clients. Areas affected include Girei, Song, Mubi North, Hong, Gombi, Fufore, Mubi South, Madagali, Michika, Maiha, Chibok, and Yola North in Adamawa; Askira/UBA and Shani in Borno; and Nasarawa in Kano.

MTN has apologised to its subscribers but stressed that the upgrade is necessary to restore stability and improve service quality across the corridor.

The planned downtime reveals a much bigger issue in Nigeria’s telecom industry, the high cases of fibre cuts. Network operators lose billions of naira yearly to these incidents, which continue to paralyse services nationwide.

Airtel Nigeria’s Director of Corporate Communications and CSR, Femi Adeniran, recently warned: “On average, operators report multiple incidents daily, disrupting services to millions of Nigerians. Airtel Nigeria alone records a daily average of 43 fibre cuts and in the last six months, a total of 7,742.”

He explained that most of the damage comes from road construction, vandalism, and poor coordination among agencies. The impact goes far beyond dropped calls; businesses, government institutions, and even emergency services are affected whenever cables are tampered with.

National Security Threat

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has confirmed that operators now report around 1,100 fibre cuts every week. This scale of disruption recently triggered simultaneous blackouts for MTN and 9mobile in Kebbi, Sokoto, and Zamfara States after cuts occurred on both networks on 29 May.

NCC’s Executive Vice Chairman, Dr Aminu Maida, has called the trend alarming and revealed that the Commission has launched a “multi-pronged strategy” involving technical enforcement, security collaboration, and public awareness.

President Bola Tinubu has also declared telecom infrastructure as Critical National Information Infrastructure (CNII)under the Cybersecurity Act, making its protection a matter of national security.

The MTN fibre maintenance in the North-East may only last two hours, but it is a nationwide problem that continues to threaten Nigeria’s digital economy. Without stronger safeguards and coordination, fibre cuts will remain a recurring nightmare for millions of subscribers.

The post MTN to Disrupt Services in North-East for Fibre Maintenance on Saturday appeared first on Tech | Business | Economy.

The telecoms giant is executing these strategic enhancements in response to growing demand and recent tariff adjustments, ensuring customers continue to receive exceptional value.

Widespread Network Expansion

At the heart of Glo’s upgrade is the deployment of hundreds of new 4G LTE base stations across key cities and underserved communities. This aggressive expansion aims to boost signal strength, reduce call drops, and enhance data speed for millions of users.

The network densification also focuses on strengthening coverage in high-density population areas, an essential move to ensure consistent performance as demand surges.

Fibre Re-Routing to Protect Connectivity

In response to disruptions caused by nationwide road construction, Glo is relocating its fibre infrastructure along strategic routes such as:

• Auchi–Okene
• Benin–Ekpoma
• Lafia–Akwanga
• Minna–Abuja
• Funtua–Gusau

This massive investment not only restores disrupted services but fortifies the backbone of Glo’s network against future interruptions.

“We decided, at a huge cost, to relocate the fibres, many of which were vandalized during uncoordinated road construction, to bring best-in-class services to our customers,” Glo disclosed.

Scaling with Sustainability

Globacom is also prioritizing environmentally friendly solutions, including the expansion of hybrid power systems and increased reliance on battery-powered sites, steps aimed at reducing the carbon footprint of its growing infrastructure.

Tackling Infrastructure Sabotage

Despite being designated as critical national infrastructure, Glo continues to battle acts of vandalism targeting its equipment. The company has called for stronger protective regulations to secure telecom assets vital to national development.

What’s Next?

Glo has pledged to:

• Add over 1,000 new sites by 2026
• Extend fibre coverage to more hub sites
• Deepen 4G LTE penetration nationwide
• Deliver faster data, better voice clarity, and broader access

With this multi-billion naira investment, Glo is reinforcing its commitment to being Nigeria’s most customer-centric network, bridging digital gaps, powering businesses, and enriching lives across the country.

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