The way I see it

 Africa is the next growth frontier for major investments in Infrastructure, in Agriculture and so many other sectors. But as Technology evolves towards cloud and data centre economics, and the race for 5G connectivity intensifies - there is still 750M unconnected subscribers, with the vast number, 300M in Subsaharan Africa and 220M South Asia according to the GSMA State Of mobile Internet connectivity Report 2019. The root cause is that there is no justifiable business case for telcos to deploy coverage infrastructure, especially since their investors require high returns in the mid to longterm. One of the solutions to this conundrum lies elsewhere - enter Online companies Online companies can be defined as those that conduct their businesses online by using the power of the internet. They can be termed as over the Top(OTT) companies. Some Examples for context are Google, Netflix, Alibaba, Zoom, Microsoft and so on. These companies make their money largely off already connected br...

 Alibaba is an e-commerce and internet company based in China with 2019 revenues totaling USD 72 billion . Amazon, another company based in the USA and it generated USD 280 billion in the same period. By comparison, the total tax revenue collected by the Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania economies over the last year was a combined USD23.8bn . South Africa, one of the biggest economies in Africa collected USD73.8bn in tax revenues over the last year. These numbers therefore tell us a very interesting story; that to get Africa out of poverty, increase employment opportunities and improve the well-being of citizens, African governments must strategise and invest smartly to create an enabling environment for new and disruptive business models that fully embrace the power of ICT to boost trade both in-country and with other countries in Africa. With a population of about 1.3bn people, and a median age of 19.7 years , Africa needs to imagine and create new and scalable employment avenues for th...

Technology has grown in leaps and bounds over the past 20-30 years, with a 360 degree shift from analog telephony and other traditional dial up services to a convergence of voice, video, data & internet services. This phenomenon is facilitated by the parallel growth trajectory of networks, starting from 2G towards 3G/4G/5G broadband networks, the increasing fiber footprint (Terrestrial, aerial and submarine) and the emergence of Data Center & cloud infrastructure. These network enhancements have enabled increased data speeds and improved subscriber experience. Obviously this network build comes with a massive CAPEX outlay and networks therefore end up adopting Vendor-lock-in and other preferential business models to recoup their investment. Meanwhile, with increasing network coverage footprint has been growth in mobile broadband internet subscriptions, and a surge in the adoption and use of the smartphone, which is now becoming a necessity in all ways of life. Acc...

  Executive Summary Sam Atuhamya is a young, energetic casual laborer on a small four acre banana plantation just 25km outside of Kampala, the capital city of Uganda. He earns about USD40 a month. Sam has a small 2G phone he uses to communicate regularly with his family, a wife and 2 school going children, about 400km away in the south west of Uganda. They have two lactating cows and regularly earn a small monthly income, about USD30 to supplement Sam's’ monthly income. The family therefore earns about USD70 monthly part of which is used to pay school fees for the children. Sam has no electricity at his house, even though the grid is about 4km away from his workstation. So Sam has to carry his phone, always walking past the overhead electricity lines to a nearby trading centre to charge. It is a similar situation for the Wife, with the Grid several Kilometers away. Sam’s household represents the broad spectrum of families in Africa, from Madagascar, Nigeria, South Sudan or K...