Versatile Amphibian

August was a relatively slow month in African telecoms investment, with $428Mn of new money committed to upgrades. 3 of the big 4 markets took new investments, with only South Africa announcement-free. Non-M&A investments for the year now stand at a touch under $8.5Bn, on track for my forecast for the year of $13.5Mn. For reference, investments announced in August 2011 totalled nearly $1.9Bn, driven by massive commitments in Nigeria and South Africa. 2010 netted a more subdued $80Mn and August 2009 yielded $300Mn. In truth, there's little of major import to report as this month's two most interesting announcements have yet to mature into concrete commitments. In Morocco, the goverment unveiled its 10 year plan to modernise the country's obselete broadband market. This exciting plan includes a national fibre backbone in combination with DSL and LTE last miles to bring developed market connectivity to 32 million people. In South Africa, MTN is looking at selling...

Despite the fact that half of the investor community are on vacation, July was a good month for African telecoms, with $2.5Bn of new infrastructure investments announced. Two things stand out. Firstly, the reawakening of the north African telecoms sector in the wake of the Arab Spring. As stability returns to the major markets, investment is coming with it. In July, Vodafone committed $50Mn to core network upgrades in Egypt. In Algeria, Mobilis will invest $1.7Bn over five years to upgrade and extend their mobile network. North Africa led investment in the continent up to the point that the revolutions started in early 2011. If they are to maintain competitiveness and exploit their geographic location then more investment will be required to enable ICT development and economic growth. I expect further big announcements before the year is out. The second characteristic of July was the large volume of spats and court cases that broke in the month. In Swaziland, MTN demanded $...

Nearly $2.4Bn of new investment in African telecoms infrastructure was announced in June 2012, making this the most lucrative month for the continent. Logically, this investment was concentrated on the most populous parts of the continent, with Nigeria (population c. 155Mn) and Democratic Republic of Congo (66Mn) taking $1.3Bn and $0.6Bn respectively for cellular network upgrades. Most investments are currently focused on installation of 3G Node-B infrastructure and smaller - yet still meaningful - investments were announced in Liberia, Mozambique, Botswana, Swaziland, Tanzania and Namibia. But possibly the most significant investment relative to the state of the market was in the world's newest country. ISP iBurst has commited around $1Mn to install fibre and switching in the capital, Juba. All of South Sudan's backbone and much of its access infrastructure was destroyed during the civil war, so this money, however small, is a significant step on the road to recovery. ...

Although Nigeria and South Africa received by far the largest share of the $10.2Bn of investments in African telecoms infrastructure announced in 2011, the biggest winners were citizens of Zimbabwe. In absolute terms, Nigeria ($3.3Bn) and South Africa ($1.8Bn), represent 50% of the total investment, but at $54 per person, Zimbabweans benefited from more than twice as much investment per person as Nigerians ($21) or South Africans ($37.50) and received more than double the continental average ($24). Much of the new $700Mn going into Zimbabwean telecoms was spent on mobile data services, either direct to modem or to 3G handsets, taking advantage of new sub-sea bandwidth - such as that provided by SEACOM - to provide Internet connectivity to consumers. Zimbabwe, it must also be remembered, has been a significant beneficiary of Chinese investment dollars for all manner of infrastructure projects. Worst off of the large nations were citizens of the Democratic Republic of Congo ($2.75), whic...