EMTS (Etisalat Nigeria) today announced the agreed purchase of Alheri Mobile Services Limited, a fully owned subsidiary of the Dangote Group. Alheri Mobile is a holder of a 3G licence for Nigeria. The acquisition will put Etisalat Nigeria in the position of having immediate access to and full use of a 3G licence in line with the other three GSM operators in Nigeria.

Steven E. Evans, CEO of Etisalat Nigeria stated: “We are delighted to acquire the 3G licence, which is an essential element of our plans for further developing the market for mobile broadband in Nigeria. We have placed a strong emphasis on offering data services to all our customers from launch through enabling Edge on all our cell sites throughout Nigeria. Now with 3G, we can further develop our data and mobile broadband portfolio and offer our customers even higher levels of service. There is pent-up demand in Nigeria for Broadband and we intend to be leaders in satisfying it.”

The Chairman of EMTS Mr Hakeem Bello Osagie said: “We are very happy with the acquisition of the 3G license and with the professional way in which the negotiations were led by Mr Aliko Dangote and his team. We look forward to further cooperation in the future.”

Boye Olusanya, Managing Director of Alheri Mobile and Head of Dangote’s telecommunications arm stated: “ It makes sense for us to sell Alheri Mobile to Etisalat Nigeria as we believe that the market here can only sustain four mobile operators in the medium to long term. We intend to use the capital raised to develop our other assets in the telecommunications market and we look forward to continuing to deepen our relationship with Etisalat Nigeria.”

About EMTS

EMTS (Etisalat Nigeria) is a GSM operator in Nigeria, operated in partnership with Etisalat, the leading mobile operator in the Middle East. The company just celebrated the 2nd anniversary of launching its services along with its 6 million subscribers. EMTS continues to extend its footprint across all 36 states and to increase the density of its network to better serve its customers.

About Alheri Mobile

Alheri Mobile is a subsidiary of the Dangote Group and the recipient of a 3G licence awarded by the National Communications Commission.