NuRAN, MTN Benin sign 200-site NaaS agreement

Canadian telecom infrastructure provider NuRAN Wireless and telecom operator MTN Benin have signed a 200-site Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) agreement.

This five-year NaaS agreement, will see NuRan deploy 2G,3G and 4G sites in rural locations in the West African country.

The agreement was finalized under the Group Framework Agreement, which represents a commitment made by the two companies in 2022 to establish sites in rural regions throughout the Middle East and Africa.

According to NuRAN, upon completion of the contract, which increases the deal's value, it expects to retain ownership of the sites.

Moreover, with this new deal, NuRAN now has over 5,092 sites under contract with several mobile network operators (MNOs), surpassing 50% of its goal of reaching 10,000 sites within five years of launching the NaaS framework.

The telecom infrastructure provider said it had received an initial drawdown of US$2.5 million from the Facility for Energy Inclusion (FEI), enabling it to resume its rollout plan.

"While the majority of the amount will be dedicated to Cameroon, NuRAN expects to dedicate a portion to initiate site builds in the Ivory Coast, Benin and Madagascar as well as to deliver sites already in inventory in South Sudan," NuRAN said in a statement.

NuRAN African movements

NuRAN has been signing deals with African telcos aimed at connecting the continent's underserved communities.

This current agreement comes a month after NuRAN signed a five-year NaaS agreement with MTN Group for the deployment of 250 sites on the African continent.

The five-year NaaS agreement between MTN Benin and NuRAN will see the latter deploy 2G, 3G and 4G sites in rural locations in the West African country. (Source: MTN Group)

In October 2023, the telecom infrastructure provider obtained a Category 1 license in Cameroon that enabled it to build and operate shared passive infrastructure for the country's electronic communications networks.

In January 2023, the NuRAN signed a ten-year agreement with multinational telecommunications company Orange for the deployment of up to 500 rural networking sites on Madagascar's east coast by 2025.

Benin mobile environment

The NaaS agreement will ensure that MTN Benin connects the West African country's underserved communities.

Statistics from market research company Omdia, a sister company of Connecting Africa, show that MTN Benin is the biggest mobile operator in the country with almost 7.2 million mobile users at the end of the second quarter of 2024.

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Omdia reports that Moov Africa Benin was the second biggest telco with almost 6.2 million mobile users around the same time.

Celtiis Benin was the smallest operator with nearly 2.2 million mobile users.

*Top image source: Image by www.slon.pics on Freepik.

— Matshepo Sehloho, Associate Editor, Connecting Africa