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Welcome to the September/October 2021 edition of Addleshaw Goddard's Africa Group Newsletter. We hope you enjoy reading a selection of business news and articles from around the continent.
Please visit our dedicated Africa site for more information about doing business in Africa and how Addleshaw Goddard can support you.
The newsletter theme this month is technology and innovation.
Introduction
The pace of digital transformation, throughout the continent, is encouraging. Internet access across Africa is at an all-time high of 39.3% and growing monthly, looking to catch up to the global average of 58.8%. To highlight some key developments in the past month:
- Nokia and the African Telecommunications Union have pledged to work together to speed up digital transformation. This involves laying the groundwork to help governments shape telecoms policies, develop talent and ensure an inclusive approach is adopted across rural and urban areas.
- The roll-out of 5G is commencing in Nigeria, and is continuing to be rolled out in other countries like South Africa and Kenya.
- Broadband and fiber optic infrastructure is also improving across the region, thanks in part to underwater fibre-optic cabling, which should result in 16 African countries having access to high-speed broadband by 2024.
Enjoy reading about these (and more!) in our newsletter below.
- Nokia, ATU pledge to speed up Africa's digital transformation
The African Telecommunications Union (ATU) and Finnish telecommunications company Nokia have together pledged to speed up digital transformation in Africa.
The two signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in Nairobi, Kenya, this week saying they plan to leverage the power of telecommunications – including 5G networks – to connect the unconnected and identify innovative use cases, as well as business models.
To read this article click here
- African universities hamstrung by poor campus networks
An ambitious action plan has been proposed to connect African universities and other post-secondary education institutions on the continent to high-speed internet at a cost of US$52 billion, an expense that would also provide laptops to 15 million students and 500,000 teaching staff in the next five years, running between 2021 and 2025.
To read this article click here
- Liquid Enables High-Speed Connectivity in the DRC
Africa’s leading technology group, Liquid Intelligent Technologies, is now delivering affordable high-speed connectivity to communities in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) using state-of-the-art Wireless Optical Communication technology (WOC) from Project Taara at X, Alphabet’s moonshot factory. This achievement marks a robust high-capacity communications bridge between Kinshasa and Congo Brazzaville.
To read this article click here
- 25m Nigerians may remain outside telecom coverage after 5G roll out
As the dateline for the deployment of 5G networks in Nigeria narrows down to early next year, there are indications that about 25 million Nigerians in 114 telecommunications clusters would remain outside coverage areas as telecom authorities get set for roll out.
It is also likely that about 13 million Nigerians in another 103 clusters that were recently connected into the GSM network for the first time under the 1G-4G technology would also come behind under the 5G regime.
To read this article click here
- Icasa's invitation to apply for spectrum must be set aside, court rules
The North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria has officially issued an order setting aside a decision by the communications regulator to publish an invitation to apply (ITA) for spectrum, after the regulator and communication companies in the matter failed to reach a settlement over the terms of the auction.
The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) had issued the contested invitation in October 2020, with the intention of holding the auction by end of March 2021.
To read this article click here
- Nigerian Federal Govt. Approves 5G Deployment in the Country
The Federal Government has approved the deployment of the Fifth Generation Network, otherwise called 5G in Nigeria.
The Honourable Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof. Isa Ali Ibrahim (Pantami) announced the approval after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting in Abuja on Wednesday, September 8, 2021.
To read this article click here
- While global tech giants focus on African connectivity, the key ingredient is still missing
In the coming weeks, Starlink, SpaceX’s satellite internet constellation, will be able to beam down satellite-based internet to the whole world. “We’ve successfully deployed 1,800 or so satellites, and once all those satellites reach their operational orbit, we will have continuous global coverage,” Starlink President, Gwynne Shotwell, said in late June. Starlink is aiming to reach the African connectivity market with Beta tests as early as 2022.
To read this article click here
- Afreximbank’s FEDA invests in Liquid Intelligent Technologies, African telecoms group
African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) has announced that its subsidiary, Fund for Export Development in Africa (FEDA), has taken a minority investment in Liquid Intelligent Technologies (Liquid), a pan-African telecommunications technology group.
FEDA is a development impact-oriented subsidiary of Afreximbank, which provides equity and quasi-equity funding to companies developing trade and value-added export of goods and services in Africa.
To read this article click here
- Africa’s race into global space: Will it take off?
African countries are looking to space to meet the rising demand for connectivity, fueled by fast-changing data consumption patterns and the growing need to bridge the digital divide in land-locked countries.
Demand for internet connectivity has skyrocketed across the continent in the last two years, driven largely by Covid-19 disruptions that have significantly altered the way Africans consume data.
To read this article click here
- 2Africa subsea cable gets even bigger
The highly anticipated 2Africa subsea cable system is expanding even farther, adding four new branches to extend connectivity to the Seychelles, the Comoros Islands and Angola, as well as adding a new landing in southeast Nigeria.
The 2Africa consortium is made up of tech heavyweights and major telcos including Facebook, MTN GlobalConnect, Orange, Vodafone, China Mobile International, Saudi Telecom (stc), Telecom Egypt and WIOCC.
To read this article click here
