climate and comms

The mobile operators have been the ‘unicorns’ of Africa for the last 20 years.    Consistently outperforming, not only their global peers, but also all other sectors in Africa – even resources.    Historically African MNO’s have enjoyed higher EBITDA margins than their developed market peers – but it seems the African mobile fairy tale is coming to an end as we approach the bewitching hour of midnight.   The nasty sisters of MTN’s Nigerian Cinderella have reared their ugly heads with the imposition of a punitive $5.2bn fine.     Like Apple, whose once unstoppable iPhone sales have started to slow, most African MNO’s   need to come up with something new and smart or risk marginalisation as demand slows.     The killer App in Africa to date has been voice – but this market is saturated now with   customers from the very bottom of the pyramid – and so voice ARPU’s have declined.    According...

Dambiso Moyo argues that “ limitless development assistance to African governments, has fostered dependency, encouraged corruption and ultimately perpetuated poor governance and poverty” [1] .     It is self evident that sustainable development has not taken off despite the billions in foreign aid to African Governments over the last 60 odd years since the end of the colonial era.     Having eliminated aid as being a non-starter for African development the challenge now is to find the magic formula.     What key attributes, artefacts, behaviours or mechanisms will have the highest impact?      It is a highly complex web of factors and interdependencies that will lead to a sustainable future.    Issues like improved governance, the rule of law, better education,   better health care,   greater FDI,   trade,   even climate change will all be key factors that will impact the future ...