African telecom towers firm IHS is looking for additional financing to expand beyond its Nigerian base, reports the Financial Times.

IHS already owns 850 mobile phone towers in Nigeria – which it rents to local operators – but is planning to take its portfolio to more than 2,000 next year across Uganda, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Ivory Coast and South Sudan.

According to the report, IHS has hired Citibank to approach investment groups in a bid to raise more than US$200 million.

The funds will be used mainly to buy infrastructure owned by operators which are looking to outsource, such as France Telecom in Uganda. It will also look to build from scratch in markets where new towers are needed, such as the Ivory Coast.

Issam Darwish, the firm’s CEO, told the Financial Times that the total value of the African tower market is estimated at about US$50 billion. He noted that Africa needs at least another 50,000 masts to support growing voice and data traffic.

“Voice penetration is about 60 percent across Africa but real penetration is about 10-15 percent less than that,” said Darwish. “So there will be a massive growth in voice traffic that will need building to ensure more capacity, while data use is almost non-existent and will grow rapidly.”

Darwish said that IHS raised US$79 million in June and this had already been invested in acquiring sites in Nigeria. It has also raised a further US$52 million, in part from Emerging Capital Partners, the Africa-focused private equity group.