The long shadow of rising inflation and the actions taken to tackle it continues to challenge towercos active in Africa. Increasing cost of capital, fluctuating interest rates and the search for US$ in several markets have created challenging operating and financial conditions.
Due to increasing costs of capital, towerco strategy is shifting away from M&A to focus on organic growth and increasing tenancy ratios. In the latest Q1 financial results and 2024 strategies of Africa’s public towercos Helios Towers highlighted its ambition to reach a prevailing tenancy ratio of 2.2x by 2026 as many of its recently acquired towers remain underutilised single-tenant sites.
