Versatile Amphibian

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 $...

New investments in African telecoms infrastructure fell 42% in 2011, from $17.6Bn in 2010 to $10.2Bn in 2011. While at face value this seems like a profoundly negative thing for the continent, the story is actually still mostly positive for its population. In total, the average African citizen benefited from just under $29 of new infrastructure since January 2010, often coming from a very low base. Many countries, such as Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Malawi experienced quantum leaps in backhaul and access network connectivity, taking them from laggards to leaders and closing the gap to traditionally leading countries like Kenya and Ghana. There are also a number of mitigating factors that should be taken into account when looking at the raw numbers. First amongst these are the effects of the Arab Spring uprisings, which began in the early part of 2011 and rumbled on throughout the year. Egypt and Morocco suffered worst in telecoms infrastructure terms - shown below - receiving only nominal...