Airtel To Sell Its 4,800 Towers in Nigeria.

American Tower Corporation and Airtel have inked an agreement for the sale of over 4,800 of Airtel’s communications towers in Nigeria.

According to a trading statement Airtel plans to sell the towers to American Tower Corporation (ATC) for around $1.05 billion.

The acquisition is expected to close in the first half next year subject to regulatory and other conditions, reads the statement.

   Airtel Africa CEO Christian de Faria stated that: “The agreement, which is part of a stated philosophy of promoting infrastructure sharing, will provide cost efficiencies and at the same time allows the company to sharpen its focus on the customer. Airtel earlier reached agreements with Eaton and Helios to sell towers in another ten countries in Africa.”

  Meanwhile, in July Airtel agreed to sell about 3,100 mobile towers in four African countries to Helios Towers Africa.

Airtel has operations in 17 African countries and over 68.3 million subscribers on the continent.