Africa Mobile Networks secures $20million credit facility to extend connectivity
Africa Mobile Networks Limited has successfully reached financial close on their $20million senior secured loan facility. The new financing package is expected to help deliver long-term benefits and financing a rollout of mobile communications towers in rural and ultra-rural Africa.
The facility, provided by BlueOrchard Sustainable Assets Fund (BOSAF) and the OP Finnfund Global Impact Fund I, will deliver a USD 20 million debt investment package to support the growth of Africa Mobile Networks ("AMN"). The transaction was announced in November 2022, and financial close reached in March 2023.
AMN eyes to be the leading rural telecoms provider in Africa, aiming to build over 10,000 base stations in 20 Sub-Saharan countries while serving a total population of over 35 million people. AMN's portfolio is spread across different countries, with exposure to a significant number of Least Developed Countries (LDCs) such as DRC, Liberia, Congo and Guinea.
The news follows on from a successful equity investment of US$36 million announced in 2021 from a consortium led by Metier, CDC Group (the UK's development finance institution and impact investor), DEG (Germany's development finance institution), Proparco (the private sector arm of the French Development Agency) and other leading financial institutions and investment managers.
"Sub-Saharan Africa is home to 1.1 billion people, one seventh of the global population, 62% of which is classified as rural. It is not only the fastest growing region in the world, but also has the world's largest population percentage that does not have mobile coverage. According to estimations, more than 300 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa are living in villages which have no usable mobile network service today. We have set out to address this challenge," said Michael Darcy, CEO of AMN.
AMN was advised by London based Qbera Capital LLP (Financial) and supported by Dentons (Legal).
