Pioneer solar-based internet and voice service provider, Tizeti, said it has generated 11 billion in revenue in the last 10 years of its operation. The company, which currently provides internet service in Nigeria and Ghana is bridging the wide internet access gaps in the countries through its Wi-Fi services.
The company’s revenue was driven largely by its 2.8 million Nigerian customers, even as it said it has deployed over 3,884 hotspot locations in the country.
The founder and chief executive officer of Tizeti, Mr. Kendall Ananyi, at the second edition of Tizeti’s annual event, tagged ‘NeXTGEN 2.0: The Next Frontier’, said the company is leveraging solar power to deliver efficient services, which bolstered its revenue. With its successes in Nigeria and Ghana, the company, he said, is now targeting expansion into Cote d’Ivoire and Togo.
What they are saying
Speaking at the conference, Ananyi said: “In the last 10 years of our operation, we have been able to generate N11 billion as revenue and this we achieved without any debt as of today.”
While noting that the broadband gap in Africa is still very high, he said this is prompting Tizeti to expand its service to ensure that more Africans have access to reliable, affordable and truly unlimited internet.
“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 3884 hotspot locations and built 1 tower every month since we started, with 2.8 million users in Nigeria. Today, Tizeti delivers over 190TBPS of data a day, which is about 20% of what Airtel, the second largest telco with coverage in 36 states delivers.
“Internet users in Africa are still about 26% of the total population, with almost 900 million people unconnected. We are now exploring the public markets for equity/debt to fund our next growth phase. We have reserved our ticker at NASDAQ, and are exploring London Stock Exchange as we are an LSE-Companies to Inspire, as well as the Nigerian Exchange NGX,” Ananyi said.
Speaking on the Francophone expansion, the co-founder and chief operating officer of Tizeti, Ifeanyi Okonkwo highlighted the increased submarine cable investments in Africa to date, and the absence of middle-mile and last-mile infrastructure that moves the capacity where it is needed. With Tizeti’s new infrastructure build-out across West Africa, Tizeti plans to 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,” said Okonkwo.