Inclusive adoption of Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) is now broadly acknowledged to be a core enabler of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). As a sign of the importance of connectivity, target 9 of the SDGs aims to “significantly increase access to information and communications technology and strive to provide universal and affordable access to the internet in Least Developed Countries (LDCs) by 2020”.
The economic impact of increased access to connectivity has long been demonstrated, with several studies outlining the correlation between increased broadband penetration and faster GDP growth. The increased adoption of ICTs grows the economy, by helping unlock the often-stunted potential of key sectors such as agriculture, financial services or transportation. At a social level, higher internet adoption helps transform people’s lives by providing a platform for the development of a wide array of enabling digital tools that improve day-to-day lives and provide pathways for economic empowerment.
In few regions is the need for such a connectivity boost as vital as in Africa. The continent is home to 80% of the world’s LDCs and around 17% of the global population but accounts for only around 5% of global broadband connections, according to International Telecommunications Union (ITU) data.
The Evolution of Africa’s International Capacity (Source: Xalam Analytics estimates)
A lot of progress has been made over the past decade towards increasing access to connectivity in the region. Since 2010, around $120 billion has been invested by the private sector and governments in building Africa’s digital infrastructure, according to data from Xalam Analytics. Investments in submarine cable systems have boosted Africa’s international capacity supply nearly tenfold since 2010 . There are now a dozen Africa-focused international cables connecting Africa to the world. Bandwidth capacity on African shores crossed the 100 Tbps mark in 2018, a significant milestone in the efforts to resolve twhat had been a longstanding bottleneck for African internet growth.
Efforts to build up terrestrial fiber infrastructure have also intensified over the past ten years, transforming Africa’s fiber backbone and metro markets. Private fibercos like Liquid Telecom have deployed extensive cross-country fiber networks. Others, like Dark Fiber Africa and CSquared, have upended the the wholesale fiber models prevailing within Africa’s urban centers; and a wide range of state-funded fiber backbone projects are transforming the African wholesale terrestrial fiber landscape. Since 2010, African countries have added around 400,000 kilometers in new terrestrial fiber links, extending the reach of digital infrastructure beyond the urbanized coastal cities to thousands of towns in the interior.
Considerable efforts have similarly been expended towards strengthening Africa’s data hosting infrastructure with locally-based data centers, a vital component of a robust African internet infrastructure. Africa’s available data center colocation space has nearly doubled in size since 2014; as a sign of growing interest in this segment, investments in data center infrastructure doubled in 2018 , driven by strong demand by global hyperscale and international internet content providers looking to establish a beachhead on the continent.
The Evolution of Africa’s Broadband Connections (Source: ITU)
All these infrastructure developments have underpinned a transformational growth in African internet adoption. At the end of 2018, the number of broadband connections in Africa crossed the 300m mark, nearly twenty times 2010 levels, according to data from the ITU. Across Africa, the expanded last mile connectivity infrastructure is providing a foundation for unleashing new runways of economic growth, along with the opportunity to leapfrog traditional models to digitize transactions and interactions between consumers, businesses and governments.
African commercial banks are making investments in machine learning and Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools to improve customer experience and credit risk management. In Kenya, government-managed Huduma centers are using virtualized infrastructure to enhance public service delivery. South African cities are investing in Platform as a Service (PaaS) solutions to develop flexible traffic applications. Large consumer retail firms such as Tusky’s and Pick n Pay are using cloud compute capabilities to develop their e-commerce offerings and transform how they reach a predominantly mobile and increasingly digital customer base. And scores of African startups are leveraging improved connectivity to access the advanced compute, storage, database, analytics and cognitive capabilities offered by cloud services to transform the customer experience and disrupt entire industry sectors.
