Scholars, pundits and celebrities alike have long downplayed Africa’s growth, almost as though the continent itself were a mismanaged country, a sorry nation-state of affairs.  Truth be told, there is significant, tangible change as a result of investment seen across the continent, change which is helping not only bring African citizens up to speed with the 21st century, but positioning specific nations such as Nigeria and even Darfur with the potential to compete with the “BRICs” of the next few decades.

The change is found in telecommunications. Broadband and mobile networks from across the globe have seen the potential in Africa, a continent whose nations, though many labelled as emerging markets, have stood for growth in unprosperous economic times.  

Telecommunication benefits not only those in the financial sector but down the chain to those in agriculture, connecting farmers to distributors and distributors to their customers. The need for telecommunicative growth for national development is paramount and many organizations and governmental bodies have come to the table to help make this change in Africa occur. The Mobile Health Alliance (or mHealth Alliance for short),  has stated their aim to facilitate the 64 percent of cell phone users who are located in the developing world. OptiCon Systems, Inc. have signed a non-exclusive sales representative agreement with NDR Marketing CC of South Africa, in order to sell OptiCon Fiber Management Software to local telecommunications companies in South Africa.  Tata Communications has seen a dramatic growth in the number of UK companies looking to outsource their hosted IT operations to developing African nations.  Zain, a leading mobile telecommunications provider recently announced plans to bring mobile banking to over 100 million people in Africa with the launch of its new service, Zap.

It should be noted that the growth of fiber network communications in South Africa is only at its infant stage. However, the country has seen double digit growth over the past 2 years in voice and data demand and South Africa is aggressively working on fiber infrastructure to comply with the need for global communications as the country readies for the World Cup Soccer Tournament in 2010. Overall, the African telecommunications industry has seen 19 million net additions to the wireless market in 2008, according to the US-based Telecom World Congress (TWC) . That figure is only set to increase in 2009, also noting that many fixed-line networks are beginning to offer real alternatives to wireless and satellite subscriptions, creating an even more competitive market on the continent.

There is now a necessity for competitive foreign direct investment. Industry players, particularly, mobile phone service providers, will now have to go the extra mile to provide high quality service to maintain and improve their stake in the market. TWC went on to state that now was the time for mobile service providers to draw on the experiences of the developed markets, particularly in the area of Next Generation Networking (NGN) such as Third Generation (3G), 3.5 Generation (3.5G) and Fourth Generation (4G) services to guide their investments into NGN upgrading.?

An opportunity is ripening in Africa for progressive telecommunication investment. In fact, if a corporation wishes to enter an African market, they aren’t holding all the cards anymore. The respective citizenries have higher hopes than those in the west even begin to suspect. An application to corporate investment would be to seek opportunity in nations where poverty is publicized. Enter in Zimbabwe, enter in Darfur. Khartoum is downright cosmopolitan, but one wouldn’t know if they watched western news. Be aware of certain African governments, where opportunity lies in privatization controversy with previous telecom companies.  For example, in Ghana, the sale of Ghana Telecom to Vodafone International of the U.K. has been taken to court, while in Zambia, the sale of the Zambia Telecommunications Company (Zamtel) by the Minister of Communications and Transport is also being challenged in the courts of law.

In a time where Africa is labelled a continent below reproach, note that the advances in African telecommunications are only the beginning, and that corporations wishing to jump on the bandwagon should do so now.