MTN gets South African green light to acquire IHS Towers, $2.2 billion on the table

The South African Competition Tribunal approved on October 2, 2026, the acquisition by operator MTN of the stake in IHS Towers it did not yet own, a deal valued at $2.2 billion, or approximately 36 billion rand, reports the specialized media outlet Techpoint Africa. MTN, which already held about a quarter of the capital, is thus taking control of the remaining 75%.

The offer was announced in February 2026. It closes a loop: in 2022, MTN South Africa had sold 5,701 passive tower sites to IHS for 6.4 billion rand. Four years later, the operator is regaining control of this infrastructure.

Towers, the invisible backbone of African digital

Behind every call, every mobile money transfer, and every data connection in Africa, there is a mast. Tower companies, long discreet, have become strategic assets: they lease their sites to multiple operators at once, which avoids duplicating masts and lowers the cost of coverage, particularly in rural areas where the return on investment is slowest.

It is precisely this shared model that the regulator wanted to protect. The tribunal has attached conditions to its authorization: fair and non-discriminatory access to IHS infrastructure, maintenance of existing customer rights and the renewal of their leases, equal treatment of competing operators, confidentiality of customer data, and maintaining IHS as an operationally independent entity.

Why these safeguards matter

Without these conditions, an operator owning the masts could be tempted to favor its own network and increase access costs for its rivals, ultimately leading to higher prices for subscribers. Control of physical infrastructure is one of the points where the cost of connection on the continent—still among the most expensive in the world relative to income—is concretely decided.

African capital buying back its own networks

The operation also illustrates a fundamental trend: African groups taking back ownership of structuring digital assets instead of leaving it to external funds. MTN, present in about twenty African markets, is consolidating a link here upon which its competitors depend as much as it does itself. The vigilance of the continent's regulators will determine whether this integration translates into expanded coverage or a strengthened dominant position.