Congo Brazzaville

Congo Brazzaville is our smallest market, with a population of just over 5 million. It has a mobile penetration of 47% and has experienced mobile subscription CAGR of 1.9% between 2012 and 2018.

Independent forecasts suggest a further 3.8% CAGR between 2018 to 2024⁽¹⁾.

Recent regulatory initiatives include the launch of a universal service fund in late 2017 to finance projects that enhance consumer connectivity, and an agreement with Africa50 in February 2019 to triple power capacity, drive transformational change and build regional networks.

The market has been a duopoly of MTN and Airtel since mid-2018, and they have a broadly equal share following the withdrawal of two challengers. But both see their network developments as an effective way of competing.

Accordingly, the arrival of 4G in the market has driven data demand higher, with Airtel only launching at the end of 2018.

Helios Towers is the only independent towerco and has 49% share of the market. With a strong presence in urban areas (59% towers), and with 77% of our towers in unique positions, HT’s sites are ideally located to benefit from increased demand from the MNOs to fulfil their densification requirements with new PoS.

_{(1) Hardiman report, August 2019}