Telecommunications firms operating in Nigeria and other African countries are stepping up investments in cross-border internet infrastructure in a bid to take advantage of the growing demand for enterprise communications services, analysts have said.
This new development, according to them, has become imperative considering that Africa is gradually becoming an economic hub. In view of this huge market opportunity, many global and regional firms are expanding their presence across the continent. “Sub-Saharan African countries overall have shown considerable resilience to financial shocks during the global financial crisis,” Moody’s Investors Service analysts said.
“We expect that investors’ interest in the region will be sustained given the strong macroeconomic growth outlook for Africa.” Moody’s however expects economic growth on the continent to average between 5 percent and 6 percent “over the coming years,” putting the region among the best global performers, the ratings company said. Stevan Hoyle, global enterprise president of Asia-Pacific and Sub-Saharan Africa, Vodafone, was quoted in a report, saying, many global firms deepening their presence in Africa would be daunted by the challenge of setting up operations in different countries, each with its own unique infrastructure and communications challenges.
According to him, these businesses would require innovative solutions that could assist in minimising the cost and complexity of communications in Africa.
“There is growing interest in the ability to offer a single management contract governing multiple territories, taking away much of the worry for large corporate customers looking to manage their communications in a fast-growing but demanding environment”, he added. Global telecom service revenue is expected to reach $2.1 trillion by 2015, according to information in a report. Research firm, Frost & Sullivan, say enterprise telecom market currently accounts for about 35 percent of the overall telecoms market.
Compared to the retail market, the enterprise communications has incrementally increased in its contribution to the overall pie since CY2011.
Analysts say telecoms operators see this fresh opportunity, which has necessitated huge investments in cross-border terrestrial networks as well as regional telecoms agreements all aimed towards accelerating the growth of Internet and mobile data services across the continent.
India’s Bharti Airtel has deployed an integrated fibre and satellite network with 42 Points of Presence (PoP) spread across 17 African countries. The network will offer African businesses a variety of integrated telecom applications and solutions.
“Africa is also emerging as an economic hub and we are uniquely poised to connect the continent to the rest of the world and fully serve the growing bandwidth demand”, Ajay Chitkara, chief executive officer, Bharti Airel, said in a recent press statement. On the other hand, MainOne cable has plugged into West Africa’s internet highway by virtue of the massive investments in its cross-border network. The goal of providing seamless integration of businesses with offices in Nigeria and Ghana. The undersea company said this move would promote trade relations and boost economic growth of the sub-region. “West Africa’s real GDP growth was 6.2 percent in 2011.
The growth is largely driven by Ghana and Nigeria that share similar language, culture and practice.“They have similar business opportunities with great potentials for regional integration of businesses”, said Funke Opeke, CEO, MainOne while commenting on the project.
The company has extended its operations to Togo by virtue of an interconnection through Ghana and is currently servicing the Republic of Benin from Nigeria. According to MainOne cable company, plans are already underway to extend services to landlocked areas such as Republic of Burkina Faso and Senegal. Vodacom Business currently manages one of the largest pan-African networks.
Liquid Telecom recently acquired the East African operations of Altech, making Liquid Telecom the largest terrestrial cross-border fibre-optic network operator in Africa.
Through the deal, Liquid Telecom has added Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda to its portfolio of operations, pushing it to the forefront of fibre-optic network provision across the continent. These network will offer a variety of integrated telecom applications and solutions. The suite of products in the area of Global Transmission and IP Services include Submarine Capacity, Global leased circuits, Ethernet and Backhauls, Global and regional IP Transit, Managed Internet, Bandwidth on demand.
Ben Uzor
