Seeds of Opportunity: The African Growth Series
October 2023 | Issue 3
In this week's issue, you will learn more about:
- PODCAST: Solving Africa’s energy access challenges
- AFRICA TREND: Digitisation of the Tourism Industry
- AFRICA OPPORTUNITY: Growing Fibre Optic Market
PODCAST: Solving Africa’s energy access challenges
🎧LISTEN: Solving Africa’s energy access challenges, a discussion with Norman Moyo, CEO, Distributed Power Africa, and Patrick Prestele, Consultant, Frost & Sullivan Africa is available now on all major podcast platforms!
Part of our new podcast series, Cassava Tech Talks, powered by Connecting Africa News and hosted by Paula Gilbert, this episode explores the role of renewable energy in Africa as advances in technology drive changes in Africa’s renewable energy mix, accelerating energy access and supporting sustainable economic growth.
AFRICA TREND: Digitisation of the Tourism Industry
Digital tourism is changing the way we travel by enabling businesses to better cater to the needs of their customers. It is making travel more convenient, accessible, and personalised by using digital tools to plan, book, and experience travel. The digitisation of the tourism and hospitality industry in Africa is still in its early stages, but it is rapidly growing. This is being driven by a few factors, including the rising demand for personalised travel experiences. Egypt, Mauritius, South Africa, and Morocco are the top four countries in Africa in terms of travel and tourism competitiveness. These countries have all made significant investments in digitising their tourism industries. For example, Egypt has launched several initiatives to promote digital tourism, including developing a mobile app for tourists and launching a social media campaign to promote the country's tourist attractions. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the digitisation of the tourism and hospitality industry in Africa. Businesses in the industry have been forced to adopt new technologies to survive and thrive in the post-pandemic world. For example, many hotels and resorts have now implemented contactless check-in and check-out procedures and are using mobile apps to provide guests with information and services. The digitisation of the tourism and hospitality industry has several positive benefits for Africa. It is making travel more affordable and accessible, attracting more tourists to the continent, and creating new jobs and opportunities.
AFRICA OPPORTUNITY: Growing Fibre Optic Market
As of 2021, fibre networks reached nearly 57% of the population in Sub-Saharan Africa. In absolute numbers, 669 million people lived within a range of 25 kilometers from an operational fiber optic network node in that year. Network expansion has been progressively growing in Africa, but only 10% of South African households have home internet access, significantly lower than the 50% average across developing countries. Equipment cost is a significant barrier across households, businesses and enterprises - whilst the subscription cost can be less of an issue. There are significant regional disparities, with 26% of households in the Western Cape having home access, whereas this is just 2% in the northernmost province of Limpopo. Companies such as Vumatel and Openserve are leveraging the gap in the market and have plans to serve Africa’s Underserved Markets. The profitability of this business model can be difficult for smaller FNOs and ISPs but this is a big opportunity for larger players with a socio-economic mandate to leverage and expand market share.
To find out more about opportunities in Africa, please get in touch with Lynne Martin.
