MainOne, one of West Africa’s leading telecommunications services companies, has signed a $100 million financing facility agreement with Standard Chartered Bank, FirstBank, Skye and FCMB Bank. The ceremony which took place on Wednesday October 9th, 2013 at the Federal Palace Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos was in furtherance of MainOne’s effort to expand its services.
Speaking on the transaction, Chief Financial Officer, MainOne, Mr. Babatunde Dada, thanked the deal team for the laudable work done to bring the transaction to a close. He stated: “the successful signing of this facility agreement clearly shows the trust which the financial institutions have in MainOne, as well as our expansion plans in Nigeria and our other West African markets’.
According to the Group Managing Director, FirstBank, Bisi Onasanya, ‘this initiative signposts FirstBank’s continuous support to responsible and value-adding companies like MainOne. He said FirstBank confidently signed on to this facility further to the excellent performance of the company on the initial project financing that FirstBank actively supported as a leading investor in 2009.
Also speaking on the transaction, the Group Managing Director of Skye Bank, Kehinde Durosimi-Etti posited that ‘We are pleased with this arrangement and are providing further financing support given the performance of MainOne. It is our hope that through this financing, MainOne would add impetus to its drive to extend its services to customers irrespective of their location.
‘The Group Managing Director, First City Monument Bank, Ladi Balogun said the bank was happy to arrange the loan facility. According to him, ‘FCMB is a bank that is synonymous with excellence and growth. Today, we have demonstrated once again our support for the growth of indigenous companies through this agreement with MainOne.
It will be recalled that since commencing operations in 2010 as the first private Submarine cable in West Africa with the largest internet network platform in Sub-Sahara Africa, MainOne has led groundbreaking innovations in telecommunications services in Nigeria and across West Africa. MainOne has developed a reputation for highly reliable services and has become the preferred provider of wholesale Internet services to major telecom operators, ISPs, government agencies, large enterprise, and educational institutions in the region.
