Africa: Vodafone Wholesale Puts in Second Fibre Link for Regional Connectivity

Vodafone Wholesale's new second link from Ghana to its neighbors is good news for the region. Ghana's position as a competitive regional hub will hopefully drive more falls in… Read more »

Rwanda: Going Digital to Tackle Traffic Accidents and Crime - Senegal and Rwanda Adopt Two Very Different Approaches

African Governments are slowly becoming more ambitious about how to tackle fundamental problems digitally. The noisy and often badly driven public transport and taxi drivers -… Read more »

Africa: The End of Africa's Mr President TV - Several Steps Forward and Two Steps Back for the Liberalization of the Airwaves

Most African countries have now formally ended the monopoly of state-run TV. Many more countries have liberalized their airwaves over the last ten years but there is a small but… Read more »

Africa: Two New Africa-South America Undersea Cables to Open

By this autumn, two new undersea cables - SACS and SAIL - will connect Africa to South America and the USA. Whilst all new fibre capacity to the continent is to be welcomed, these… Read more »

Gambia: Gambia Gets Two New TV Broadcasters - QTV and Paradise TV With Its Newly Liberalized Airwaves and More On the Way

With the exit of President Yahya Jammeh, Gambia's new Government has sought to open the TV airwaves to new private TV entrants. Russell Southwood spoke to Harona Drammeh, CEO of… Read more »

Africa: Africa's Top Three Mobile Operators Ready 'Digital Transformation Strategy'

Three of Africa's mobile operators - MTN, Orange and Vodacom - now have in place a "digital transformation" strategy. In plain English, this buzz word means that they have an idea… Read more »

Nigeria: News Satire Show Reaches 2 Million Viewers

Many countries in Africa love news satire programmes because they allow difficult issues to be talked about with a smile and puncture the pomposity of the political elites. Kenya… Read more »

West Africa: West Africa Com 2018 - the End of the Beginning for Operator Digital Transformation and So Much More

This year's West Africa Com was better attended and the low hum of networking hung over the event. In his report below Russell Southwood picks out some of the highlights from the… Read more »

Africa: Financial Services a Key Battleground in Africa's Digital Transformation

A key battleground in the digital transformation of Africa's mobile industry is the flow of payments and financial services across the network and around the world. For all the… Read more »

Angola: TV Zimbo's Serge Kalu On Taking On the State-Owned TPA - 'We Pride Ourselves On Showing More.'

Angola's TV Zimbo has been the pioneering privately owned broadcaster and has built itself a space. Once tightly controlled, the Angola broadcast market is now changing under the… Read more »

Africa: Africa's Slowest Moving Fibre Project Begins to Fall Into Place

Congo-Brazzaville should take the credit for being the most active country partner in the slow moving Central African Backbone project. It linked to neighboring Gabon in April and… Read more »

Senegal: Wari's CEO Kabirou Mbodje On Why He Wants to Buy Tigo Senegal

Digital transformation has even in Africa kicked over the whole deck of cards. Everyone wants to do everything and is trying to find where the high margin centre of gravity will… Read more »

Africa: Pan African TV Channel Voxafrica Has a Big Hit With the Voiceafrique and Will Launch a Live Streaming Channel

Being a Pan-African free-to-air channel is tough and takes a lot of time and investment. Based in London, VoxAfrica started broadcasting in May 2008 and ten years later it still… Read more »

Benin: Isocel to Launch First Ftth Service in Benin, First in Capital Cotonou and Then More Widely

FTTH roll-outs have slowly been made in a range of African countries but the recent news that Isocel will roll-out an FTTH service in Benin is a clear sign that even in smaller… Read more »

Africa: African Pay TV Looks Set to Take a Hit From VOD Platforms, Pressure On DStv in South Africa From Netflix

Companies in Africa announce things when there's good news but always claim confidentiality when things are not so bright. Earlier this month DStv made the odd move of naming its… Read more »

Nigeria: Nigerian Start-Up Paystack Has Grew Ten Times Last Year and Has Handled Near Us$10 Million in Monthly Transactions

Only 1% of payments in Nigeria is currently online but as businesses begin to make the switch, this percentage will undoubtedly grow in the next 3-5 years. It may only be a small… Read more »

Nigeria: BCN Will Use Its New Nw Infraco Licence to Become More of a National Player

In March 2018, Nigerian connectivity company BCN was awarded the Infraco licence for the North West Zone of Nigeria. Russell Southwood spoke to BCN's CEO Ibrahim Dikko about how… Read more »

Africa: The Digital Revolution - Africa's Broadcasters Need to Focus On How to Reach Their Missing Audiences

The wave of digital transformation of broadcasting and the media is already under way in Sub-Saharan Africa. However with a few exceptions, most media organizations are focused on… Read more »

Benin: Mobile Money Start-Up MFs Wants to Have 400 Million Mobile Wallets By 2020 - It's Already Nearly Halfway There

Mobile money in Africa started as a workaround with people exchanging airtime as a way of sending money. Out of this small seed of an idea has come a whole ecosystem that is both… Read more »

Africa: A Warning Sign to African Telecoms Operators - Fire At Operator Closes Down Nearly 50% of Its Capacity

The fire on 30 April at Orange Cote d'Ivoire should send a shiver down the spine of all African telecoms operators. They now operate essential infrastructure and barring… Read more »

Niger: Gondwana City Producer Catherine Guérin Talks About Comedy Feature Welcome to Gondwana

"Welcome to Gondwana" is the first feature film directed by Mamane, a comedian of Nigerienne descent who has made his way on to RFI radio and performed at the Jamel Comedy Club.… Read more »

Cameroon: New Channel CMR7 Wants to Be 'Citizens' Channel' That Reaches Beyond Elite, Focuses On What's Happening

Théodore Ndanga is Director General of the new CMR7 Cameroon television channel. Previously he was Marketing and Commercial Director at Canal 2 International from 2004 to… Read more »

Africa: Sudatel Bullish After the Lifting of U.S. Sanctions and Wants to Keep Being an International Operator in Africa

Sudatel is starting to talk more confidently and explore new international partnerships. The lifting of US sanctions has removed a barrier that has in the past held it back.… Read more »

Africa: Mediaworks' Entertainment Channel Yanga! Takes Aim At the African Diaspora in the UK

Ex-TVC Acting CEO Lindsey Oliver has an ambitious plan to create an exciting channel to reach the African diaspora in the UK. Russell Southwood spoke to her about: what content it… Read more »

Senegal: After a 20+ Year Wait, ARC Finally Gets to Launch an LTE-Tdd Broadband Service and Build Its Own Infrastructure

At the end of last month, three new ISPs launched in Senegal. Arc Informatique's Mohsen Chirara has waited over twenty years for this point and spoke to me about his long-term… Read more »