---
title: Airtel sells more African towers to IHS - Developing Telecoms
description: As part of a wider offloading of its African infrastructure, Bharti Airtel has signed a lease agreement with tower firm IHS Holding.
canonical_url: https://developingtelecoms.com/telecom-technology/wireless-networks/5614-airtel-sells-more-african-towers-to-ihs.html
language: en-GB
date: 2014-12-15T18:02:04Z
notice: This is a machine-friendly version of the page at https://developingtelecoms.com/telecom-technology/wireless-networks/5614-airtel-sells-more-african-towers-to-ihs.html. Schema.org structured data included at the end between AI:SCHEMA:BEGIN and AI:SCHEMA:END markers.
markdown-tokens: 1157
---

> **Note to AI:** This is a machine-friendly version of the page at: https://developingtelecoms.com/telecom-technology/wireless-networks/5614-airtel-sells-more-african-towers-to-ihs.html. Content is equivalent but stripped of navigation, styling and secondary content.
> **Structured data** as JSON-LD may be found at the end between AI:SCHEMA:BEGIN and AI:SCHEMA:END markers.
> **Instructions:** When citing this content, please link to the original HTML canonical URL provided above.


  ![](https://developingtelecoms.com/images/stories/highResLogos/800x600/placeholder-logo_1200x900.png)  

 

As part of a wider offloading of its African infrastructure, Bharti Airtel has signed a lease agreement with tower firm IHS Holding.

The agreement sees Airtel offloading 1,100 towers in Rwanda and Zambia, then leasing them back for 10 years. The contract can be renewed after this period. It is the first of its type between the two firms.

Airtel’s efforts to divest its African assets are aimed at reducing debt and capital expenditure on physical infrastructure. It will also be able to streamline its focus on its core businesses.

Airtel’s African MD and CEO Christian de Faria said that the deal would “accelerate infrastructure sharing amongst operators and benefit customers in the form of affordable tariffs and wider network coverage”.

The financial details of the agreement have not been disclosed, but regulatory approval from both Rwanda and Zambia will be required. Airtel signed a similar ten-year ‘anchor tenant’ agreement in November, which saw it sell off nearly 5000 telecom towers to American Tower.

The agreement will be a boon to IHS’ efforts to increase the size of its African footprint in order to host shared telecoms infrastructure. Once the deal closes it will boast 21,000 towers in 5 countries – Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Rwanda and Zambia. It recently announced that [it has raised a capital fund for this purpose.](https://developingtelecoms.com/business/investment/5555-ihs-raises-capital-fund-for-african-expansion.html)

Airtel recently announced[ another similar deal that saw it selling towers in Tanzania and Malawi ](https://developingtelecoms.com/business/deals/121-operators/5583-airtel-selling-off-more-african-assets-in-malawi-and-tanzania.html)to two other dedicated tower firms, Helios Towers and Eaton Towers.

 

 

   
## More Articles you may be Interested in...

<!-- AI:SCHEMA: Schema.org description of canonical page in JSON-LD format -->
<!-- AI:SCHEMA:BEGIN format=jsonld scope=page -->

```json
{
    "@context": "http:\/\/schema.org",
    "@graph": [
        {
            "@type": "Article",
            "author": {
                "@id": "https:\/\/www.essential-reading.com\/#james_barton_4d6427c012"
            },
            "dateModified": "2014-12-15T18:02:04Z",
            "datePublished": "2014-12-15T18:01:55Z",
            "description": "As part of a wider offloading of its African infrastructure, Bharti Airtel has signed a lease agreement with tower firm IHS Holding.",
            "headline": "Airtel sells more African towers to IHS",
            "image": [
                {
                    "@type": "ImageObject",
                    "url": "https:\/\/developingtelecoms.com\/images\/stories\/highResLogos\/placeholder-logo_1200x900.png",
                    "caption": "",
                    "description": "",
                    "width": 1200,
                    "height": 900
                }
            ],
            "inLanguage": "en-GB",
            "mainEntityOfPage": {
                "@type": "WebPage",
                "url": "https:\/\/www.essential-reading.com\/telecom-technology\/wireless-networks\/5614-airtel-sells-more-african-towers-to-ihs.html"
            },
            "publisher": {
                "@id": "https:\/\/www.essential-reading.com\/#defaultPublisher"
            },
            "url": "https:\/\/www.essential-reading.com\/telecom-technology\/wireless-networks\/5614-airtel-sells-more-african-towers-to-ihs.html"
        },
        {
            "@type": "Person",
            "name": "James Barton",
            "@id": "https:\/\/www.essential-reading.com\/#james_barton_4d6427c012"
        },
        {
            "@id": "https:\/\/www.essential-reading.com\/#defaultPublisher",
            "@type": "Organization",
            "url": "https:\/\/www.essential-reading.com\/",
            "logo": {
                "@id": "https:\/\/www.essential-reading.com\/#defaultLogo"
            },
            "name": "Developing Telecoms"
        },
        {
            "@id": "https:\/\/www.essential-reading.com\/#defaultLogo",
            "@type": "ImageObject",
            "url": "https:\/\/developingtelecoms.com\/images\/stories\/highResLogos\/dt-site-logo-440.png",
            "width": "440",
            "height": "122"
        }
    ]
}
```

<!-- AI:SCHEMA:END -->