Tizeti targets pan-African expansion to bridge digital gap 

West Africa’s pioneer solar-based internet and voice service provider, Tizeti, has announced plans to expand operations into Cote d’Ivoire and Togo, in line with its commitment to bridge the digital gap in the Francophone and Anglophone countries in  West Africa.

The company, which currently operates in Nigeria and Ghana with over 2.8 million subscribers on its platform and a revenue of over N11 billion over 10 years, is also mulling listing its Nigerian subsidiary on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) as it sets to explore an Initial Public Offer (IPO).

Kendall Ananyi, founder and chief executive officer of Tizeti, gave this information while speaking at the second edition of Tizeti’s annual event tagged “NeXTGEN 2.0: The Next Frontier” held virtually.

According to Ananyi, the broadband gap in Africa is still very high, creating the need for  operators like Tizeti to expand and ensure that more Africans have access to reliable, affordable and truly unlimited internet connection.

He also stressed that Tizeti has been providing affordable unlimited internet service in Nigeria and Ghana using solar towers which and this has brought about 30-50 percent cost savings on data cap plans, making it the preferred option to its competitors.

“This expansion is very strategic for us and for the continent. We have grown significantly within the last few years, being profitable in three out of the last four years and paid our first dividend this year. We currently have over 3,884 hotspot locations and built one tower every month since we started, with 2.8 million users in Nigeria,” he said.

Speaking further on Tizetti’s expansion projects, he said the company is currently exploring the public markets for equity/debt to fund its next growth phase.

“We have reserved our ticket at NASDAQ, and are exploring the London Stock Exchange as we are an LSE-Companies to Inspire, as well as the Nigerian Exchange (NGX),” he added.

On his part, Ifeanyi Okonkwo, co-founder and chief operating officer of Tizeti, said the company has significantly increased its submarine cable investments in Africa to date.

He added that Tizeti’s new infrastructure build-out across West Africa is expected to  address the absence of middle-mile and last-mile infrastructure, bridge the digital divide and bring more Africans online via its unlimited service offering.

“We believe that Africa offers the most significant potential demand for broadband expansion, and we have looked at their populations, their relative contributions to GDP, the prevalence of higher and tertiary institutions, and other pool factors,” Okonkwo emphasised.

Tizeti’s NeXTGEN 2.0 expanded the vision of the first edition and provided a platform for stakeholders in African telecommunications, technology, and business communities to strategise for Africa’s next frontier. This also included networking, discovering new opportunities, and discussing breakthrough trends in the global and African telecoms and technology ecosystem.

Tizeti also launched new connectivity offerings, Tizeti Turbo Connect, which provides up to 150 megabits per second (MBPS) fiber-connected capacity to homes and offices, for N60,000, and a new technology that allows it to deliver up to 1,000 MBPS.

The company also announced new energy initiatives that minimise diesel cost consumption with solar panels and wind turbines across its base stations.