Increasingly industry commentators are talking about Africa as the perfect market for cloud.... Whereas lack of capacity and unreliable connectivity had previously been seen as detrimental to the launching of cloud services, it now seems that the tide has turned and these characteristics actually make the African markets an ideal Cloud launch pad.
Safaricom launched the ‘’largest native Cloud’’ in the past week, and they intend to lead not only the Kenyan market, but the rest of the continent as well. They’re putting their money where their mouth is and have joined the Cloud Africa conference & exhibition’s Advisory Board. This event is the first of its kind – bringing together the telecom operators and enterprise CIOs, offering the full story around Cloud in Africa. No other event organisers can offer 19 years of successful learning and networking in Africa – as the Com Series can. What is more Safaricom’s George Makori, Senior Manager for Cloud and Managed Services is joined on the Advisory Board by other experts and Gurus from Microsoft, HP, Ericsson, Ovum & CxO Advisors, and TM Analysts. No other conference and exhibition will bring advice and case studies at this critical point, where Cloud has the potential to take off in Africa./
In the Middle East and Africa, mobile value-added services are having a powerful transformational effect on the businesses of mobile operators and the lives of their customers.
With voice-service revenues in the region forecast to record relatively little increase over the next few years, data services offer the best growth prospects.
It is clear that data services – especially access to the Internet – have had a profoundly transformative effect in the region, as the use of online social networking has played an important part in the big political developments that have occurred in the region in the past few months, notably the overthrow of governments in Egypt and Tunisia.
Egyptian operator Mobinil said in its 1Q11 results that “data appetite is exploding,” as has been demonstrated in recent months, when “social networking, particularly via mobile, has been playing a critical role in political mobilization.” Mobinil said that it plans to launch new digital applications and form new partnerships in order to take advantage of the opportunity in mobile data.
However, one should not overstate the links between mobile data and political change. Internet connectivity and social-networking services were important as facilitators and catalysts in the Egyptian and Tunisian revolutions. But a high level of connectivity does not necessarily lead to revolution. And political upheaval can take place where connectivity is low. Syria and Yemen have among the lowest rates of mobile and broadband penetration in the Middle East but have recently experienced sustained protests, though the outcome of these remain uncertain.
In the same way that the past decade has however been pivotal for both economic and political growth in West & Central Africa, it has also seen rise to the growth of African Information Communications Technology (ICT). For many nations, the ability to connect to the global network of submarine broadband optical fibre infrastructure has been the principal trigger for this development, creating an increasingly enabling environment to the information superhighway that dominates the 21st century. Mobile telephony in particular has greatly benefitted, constituting a significant service delivery platform for the population. Yet this overall picture, characterised by increasing competition and decreasing costs of connectivity, with predictions of 100% growth of the mobile market in the next 5 years (Informa Telecoms & Media) , hides the inequalities that continue to pervade the region. In particular, countries such as Liberia, Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of Sao Tome and Principe have continued to be subject to the highest connectivity costs in the world and distanced from the increasing geographical reach of broadband networks.
World Bank works to boost Africa’s connectivity So the news in January 2011 that the World Bank has approved 3 projects to boost ICT infrastructure and access to services in these three countries surely may have the greatest revolutionary impact on the region. With the principles of commercialisation and liberisation at their heart, the initiatives, totalling a huge US$71.5 million dollars, look promising in reaching the ultimate goal of ubiquitous connection. Whilst these areas have habitually been down-trodden as small and unattractive markets to the traditional investor, the World Bank is stepping into pastures new. This in itself will at the least reduce the region’s damaging stigma, and at most, catalyse investment by others into the region.
Successful scaling-up of internet access? Evidently, now is a crucial time for the region as these initiatives set to work. To what extent will the ‘connectivity challenge’ in these regions remain as the projects transpire? Will they be the first domino to fall, triggering widespread regional growth for ICT? Yusupha Crookes, World Bank Africa Regional Director, states that ‘better days are now ahead’. Only time will tell but I must say it looks promising. If successful, such scaling up of internet access will ultimate lead to advances in communication, in itself leading to vast improvement s in economic and social quality of life.
With such wide-spread impacts to potentially be made on the entire West & Central African, evolving networks and services must be thoroughly examined and monitored to capture the region’s growth potential. The market needs to be thoroughly consulted as to the best ways to build the infrastructure to improve the access to these communications, to look at issues of cost-efficiency, to look at value-added services which can be targeted to local consumers’ needs... To find the ONLY forum focused on the West & Central African region where such pivotal issues are addressed click here: http://wcafrica.comworldseries.com/.
