Africa is an attractive market for independent tower operators for several reasons. First, there is a big and growing demand for wireless communications. The population of sub-Saharan Africa is big, estimated by the UN at around 1.2 billion people, growing at 2-3 percent a year. Yet, wireless penetration is only around 25 percent, according to recent MNO subscriber tallies.
Second, post-pandemic, mobile connectivity is becoming increasingly important for personal, commercial, and public safety communications, especially in rural areas outside the major cities where wireline networks do not reach. Moreover, smartphone usage proportionally is still low but is growing rapidly with the demand for digital services such as mobile financial transactions. For instance, Vodacom M-pesa and Airtel Mobile Money financial services generate billions of wireless transactions in micro-loans and money transfers each year. For the quarter ending September 30, Africa’s largest multinational mobile network operators - Airtel, MTN, and Vodacom - all showed year-over-year service revenue growth in mid-single to low double-digit percentage range. Continue Reading |
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