By Dipo Olowookere
On May 24, 2017, leaders from Africa’s biggest telecom investment companies including MTN, Orange, Helios Towers, American Tower, Eaton Towers, Google, Microsoft, Liquid Telecom and SEACOM will converge in London to discuss accelerating new investment opportunities in digital communications and infrastructure.
During the meeting, the telecom and tech firms will interact with investment bankers, investors and advisers.
Over 200 senior telecom, media and tech executives, including many industry CEOs, investment bankers and advisers will meet at TMT Finance Africa 2017 (www.TMTFinance.com/africa) at the Hilton Hotel Tower Bridge in London on May 24 to discuss the new investment and partnership opportunities.
Participating companies include: MTN Group, Orange, Liquid Telecom, Eaton Towers, American Tower Corporation, Jumia Food, SEACOM, Savannah Fund, Fibersat, PayStack, Sliide Airtime, Connect Africa, Rack Centre, Citi, Helios Towers Africa, Standard Bank Group, Atlas Mara Ltd, Draper Dark Flow, Google, Microsoft, Ringier Africa, Norton Rose Fullbright, WorldRemit, IFC, Amadeus Capital Partners, WIOCC, Societe Generale Chanzo Capital, Africa Mobile Networks, African Broadcast Network, Intelsat, Digital World Capital, MainOne Cable, M-KOPA Solar, Flexenclosure, Hardiman Telecom and African Capital Alliance.
Some of the key issues to be discussed include Africa Telecom Leaders, Strategies for regional growth; Mobile Towers Africa, Who is leading mobile towers investment across Africa?; Broadband Leadership, Investing in next generation infrastructure for Africa; and Mergers and Acquisitions, Who will lead the next wave of transactions in Africa?
Others are Digital Africa, Who is leading investment in Africa’s Digital Economy?; Enterprise Cloud & Datacentres – Which business models are most investable?; Financing African TMT – Raising debt and equity capital; Africa Pay-TV – How investment is transforming the landscape; and Mobile Payments Africa Panel – How is the market developing?
Recently, telecom and tech companies have increased investment across Africa as the rapidly improving digital infrastructure and services, and the take up of smartphones, provide huge opportunities for business and revenue growth.
According to an investment banker, “Telecom and tech companies are ramping up their investment plans for digital infrastructure and services across Africa as reach of service and demand is soaring.”
He said further that, “On the infrastructure side, operators are investing in spectrum, especially in the 700MHz band, as well as on strengthening their networks by migrating from 3G to 4G LTE-based services.”
“Mobile tower operators are also investing heavily while submarine and terrestrial cable providers have been increasing the available backbone infrastructure,” he added.
“Improving broadband speeds and access is also having a big impact on both business to business and consumer focused opportunities. Datacentre investment appetite is growing and Smartphone take-up is supporting the growth in m-commerce, m-money and m-banking services which presents a massive opportunity for vendors and application providers,” the investment banker noted.
Aduragbemi Omiyale 
Adedapo Adesanya