Singapore Telecom has monetised its 1.6% stake in Airtel Africa through a market placement, as part of a capital recycling strategy to focus on new growth areas.

Helios Towers has closed its acquisition of Airtel Africa’s towers in Malawi for a total of US$54.7 million.

The Paratus Group, a full-service network spanning the African continent and connecting customers internationally, has announced its expansion into the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), hard on the heels of a government tender win.

Underlining the continuing growth of data centres in sub-Saharan Africa are recent announcements involving Raxio Group in Tanzania and Digital Parks Africa in South Africa.

Debuting Angolan operator Africell has ended network sharing negotiations with market leader Unitel, enabling it to finally launch full commercial services after months of delay.

MTN Group has announced plans to shake up its c-suite team in three African units to support a growth strategy through developing its fintech and fibre businesses.

The pan-African operator Airtel Africa, a division of India’s Bharti Airtel, is reportedly planning to raise $194 million via debt from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector lending arm of the World Bank.

West African solar-based internet service provider Tizeti has partnered with Microsoft Corp to roll out high-speed internet infrastructure in Oyo State in southwestern Nigeria.

Facebook and WhatsApp owner Meta Platforms has been referred to a tribunal by South Africa’s competition watchdog over allegations that it has exploited its market dominance.

A war of words seems to have begun between Angola’s mobile market leader Unitel and new entrant Africell Angola over infrastructure sharing.

To date, Djibouti remains one of the last bastions where the national telco has a monopoly on all telecom services, including fixed lines, mobile, internet, and broadband. The lack of competition to Djibouti Telecom for such services has meant that the market has not lived up to its potential.

Continuing what has been a very eventful period for the satellite operator, Intelsat has announced a partnership with the leading Kenyan operator Safaricom to expand LTE coverage in the country.

South African regulator ICASA has stated that the main stage of its ongoing mobile broadband spectrum auction has already exceeded its initial estimate of ZAR8 billion (US$531 million).

Gabon remains one of the wealthiest nations in Africa in terms of GDP per capita, with the economy largely buttressed by oil revenue.

Gambia’s telecom market is dominated by the incumbent telco Gamtel, which retains a monopoly on fixed-line telephony services. There are five mobile network operators providing effective competition, though Giraffe Telecom was only licensed in January 2022 and is yet to be assigned spectrum.

Senegal’s telecom market continues to show steady growth in all sectors. This has been supported by the particular demands made on consumers during the pandemic, which resulted in a particularly strong increase in the number of subscribers.

M-Pesa, which is Kenya’s, and the African continent’s, best-known mobile payment system, has passed the 30 million user mark in Kenya.

A series of reforms within Uganda’s telecom sector have provided the country with one of the most competitive markets in the region.

Niger is one of the largest countries in West Africa but also one of the poorest in the world. As with many African markets, a lack of fixed telecoms infrastructure has led to growth in mobile services. Niger’s mobile penetration is modest compared to other countries in the region, while fixed broadband penetration is negligible.

South African operator Telkom has experienced mixed fortunes over the past 24 hours. It has been one of the two early winners (along with fixed wireless access operator Rain Networks) in South Africa's mobile spectrum auction but, within the same day, has been forced to delay a planned sale of its tower unit.

MTN Group reported a boost to revenue and profit as the operator pledges to invest to increase capacity in data and mobile money services.  

The Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire) has had a tortuous history since gaining independence. The country’s stability has been affected by disputes among rival groups and armed militias, particularly in the far eastern provinces and Katanga. This has resulted in considerable social upheaval, exacerbated by considerable corruption within the government.

Mozambique was one of the first countries in the region to embark upon telecom reform and to open the sector to competition.

Cameroon was for many years one of the few countries in Africa with only two competing mobile operators. After some delays, Viettel Cameroon launched a third network and has since grown its subscriber base rapidly.

During the last decade Chad’s economy has been dominated by oil exports, and as a result economic growth has been affected by the changing prices for the commodity on international markets. Recent economic difficulties have been exacerbated by civil unrest, an influx of refugees from neighbouring countries, and the economic downsides resulting from the pandemic.

Liberia has a telecom market which is mainly based on mobile networks, largely due to the protracted civil war which destroyed much of the fixed-line infrastructure.

Namibia’s telecom market has developed strongly since the second mobile network operator was licenced in 2006, thereby introducing effective competition between MTC Telecom Namibia and Paratus Telecom.

Airtel Uganda is the latest Ugandan operator to announce plans for a stock exchange listing.

As would-be rival Safaricom Ethiopia gets ready to start operations, Ethiopian incumbent operator Ethio Telecom is expanding the scope of its mobile money service telebirr. According to the Ethiopian Herald news service the latest offering is a drivers' traffic penalty payment platform.