Investment-Grade Telecom Infrastructure Bond Programme
An investment-grade, local currency bond programme backed by MTN-anchored build-to-suit telecom tower cashflows, designed to mobilise domestic capital into stable digital infrastructure returns.
Ghana's first local-currency telecom tower bond
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Transaction Briefing
Investment Grade Telecom Infrastructure Programme
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The Institutional Value Proposition
This program pioneers a critical paradigm shift in African infrastructure finance, replacing foreign USD debt with domestic, cedi-denominated capital. For Ghanaian pension funds and insurers, the bond delivers:
Sovereign De-risking: Immediate diversification away from government debt into hard, productive digital assets.
Inflation Protection: Predictable, long-term returns underpinned by contractual lease escalators linked to economic indicators.
National Impact: Direct participation in anchoring Ghana’s 4G/5G connectivity infrastructure.
The Market Challenge
Ghana’s GHS 86.4 billion pension sector is heavily over-concentrated in government securities, a vulnerability exposed by the recent sovereign debt restructuring. Concurrently, Ghana’s critical telecom tower infrastructure has historically been financed in US dollars despite generating cedi revenues. This structural currency mismatch has excluded domestic institutional capital from a premier, stable infrastructure asset class.
The Structural Solution
The PTGL–MTN Bond bridges this gap via a bankruptcy-remote Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) secured by contractual, cedi-denominated lease cash flows from PTGL’s Build-to-Suit tower agreement with MTN Ghana.
The Mechanism: PTGL constructs telecom towers to MTN specifications and transfers the revenue-generating assets into the SPV. MTN’s monthly lease payments flow through a strict cash waterfall covering operating costs, bond coupons, and reserve accounts before principal repayment.
Credit Quality: The SPV targets an investment-grade rating of A/AA from Agusto & Co. and GCR (a Moody’s affiliate), ensuring full compliance for pension fund allocation under NPRA guidelines.
FX Risk Elimination: Because revenues, costs, and debt service are entirely denominated in cedis, the transaction completely eliminates foreign exchange risk.
Scale & Financial Horizons
Tranche I (Pilot): Sized at the cedi equivalent of USD 1.5 million, financing the initial ~50 MTN-anchored towers.
Master Programme: Targets a scale of USD 200 million over ten years, expanding the footprint to 1,133 tower sites.
Growth Vector: Revenues are projected to scale from USD 2.4 million to USD 28 million by 2029, with EBITDA margins expanding from 15% to 68% driven by high-margin colocation tenants at mature sites.
Partnership-Backed
We’ve recorded and monitored ESG engagements spanning more than 20 years. We focus on strengthening the long term health of investee businesses and assets, the number of high quality engagements, our transparency and our collaboration across different areas of expertise.
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The transaction by the numbers
These figures combine our in depth engagements with thematic campaigns, collaborative engagements and mass communications around voting season.