HOST: Welcome to Limitless Africa. Today, we’re talking about something that shapes everything from jobs to education to healthcare… internet access. And Africa, we have a problem!
Only two fifths of our population have access to the internet… compare that to the global average of about 70%. Africa is lagging behind.
KENDALL: Around the more populated city centers and city the capitals, there’s relatively okay connectivity. But once you go just even a kilometer past a state capital, that’s when you see that the options start to thin out or become close to nothing.
HOST: We wanted to find out why. And what can be done about it.
FRANK ELEANYA: Africa’s got about population wise around 1.2 billion, out of that 1.2 billion plus people, somewhere around 700 million people are still without connectivity.
HOST: That’s Frank Eleanya. He’s a senior tech writer at TechCabal — and he’s been tracking Africa’s digital transformation for almost a decade.
FRANK: I’ve been covering technology in Africa, starting from Nigeria, of course, ah since 2016. I’m currently ah like one of the prominent voices in terms of covering the telecommunication industry in Africa.
HOST: So why are some 700m people in Africa struggling to access the internet, Frank?
FRANK: The problems are many… where do you start from? At the root of that problem is is infrastructure. Nigeria’s infrastructure cover coverage is quite low. um Currently, um fi fixed internet is at less than 1%. Fixed internet is at less than one percent. That’s using fiber you know to connect homes and all that, we’re still at less than 1%.
HOST: So why has there been a lack of investment in internet infrastructure?
FRANK: Over the years, we’ve had several issues with governance in Africa that has sort of, you know, kept a lot of investors away and not made them very bullish when when it comes to um deploying um the kind of capital that’s needed to bring that development across Africa.
HOST: And there’s also currency volatility and inflation… We can see why some investors have stayed cautious. Sure, But you have to remember there is huge potential.
That’s why I wanted to speak to Jay Shapiro, who runs a continent-wide gaming company from Kenya. Internet is key for their business, and Jay knows he’s in the right area for growth..
JAY SHAPIRO: We have over half a billion internet connected smartphones on the continent already. That’s more than all of the Canada, US and Mexico combined And that’s still growing at 20% year over year, whereas the U.S. is growing at 2% year over year.
HOST: Those are impressive numbers.
JAY: In fact, I would argue that Kenya has much better connectivity than the U.S. does. So while there are challenges, the opportunity is absolutely massive and and it’s worthwhile going through those difficulties to build the market.
HOST: And American tech giants are now driving some of the continent’s largest connectivity projects.
Companies like Google and Meta – which owns Facebook – are laying the underseas cables that could reshape Africa’s digital future. Here’s Frank again:
FRANK: The ones that have American involvement are the Google Equino and also the Meta to Africa.
But the ones that are largely American driven is Equinox and 2Africa. And those, funny enough, happens to be the ones that have the largest capacity on the continent.
And you would expect concerted effort to utilize this capacity in terms of the need um that the continent currently faces.
But currently, that’s not what is happening. What we’re still thinking about is how do you effectively optimise their utility?
HOST: So what I’m hearing is actually a bit different…the infrastructure is there in terms of these underseas cables, the infrastructure is there, it’s just African governments are not using them to their full potential…
FRANK: Yes, so you can say that. In terms of the backbone infrastructure which these submarine cables provide, they are there and we are expecting more. Let’s take, for instance, um the eight submarine cables for that land on Nigerian shores. And as that today, as we speak, the capacity that has been utilized on those eight submarine cables is not above 15%. So you’ve got a whole lot of capacity lying dead there and not enough government movement to galvanize the utility of those infrastructure.
What needs to match up in the willingness from policy makers and people on the street need to feel the impact of a cable that’s lying on their shores. That’s where this conversation need to lead to. That hasn’t happened so far.”
HOST: The challenge is clear: getting that bandwidth from the coast… all the way to the people who actually need it. More in-land infrastructure is needed. Which is where local innovators come in — and many of them are actually supported by American capital. One of them is Tizeti, a wireless internet provider, founded by Kendall Ananyi.
KENDALL ANANYI: So Tizeti is a wireless internet, well, started off as a wireless internet provider in Nigeria, in Ghana, and soon in Cote d’Ivoire, right? We have over 4 million devices that have connected to our network at any point since inception.
HOST: And how do they bridge the last mile — the part the cables don’t reach?
KENDALL: We still build our own infrastructure. Wherever there’s fiber, we connect the towers with fiber. And where there isn’t, we use wireless to connect our towers. And we’ve built a number of them across multiple states in Nigeria.
Same thing in Ghana, across multiple regions in Ghana. And they are solar powered. right And the cost savings we get from making from using solar to power them is how we’re able to provide internet for way cheaper than it usually costs from a telco in the form of unlimited, uncapped internet. because the needs of Africans have moved away from just sending emails, they now do a lot of videos and all that.
HOST: And it’s not just cables. American companies are also pushing new solutions — like satellite internet.
FRANK: So um what Starlink is doing is quite remarkable, even I say so. I believe that satellite has a lot of potential, reaching people in rural communities. And so far we have seen Starlink has covered 24 countries in Africa starting in Nigeria where it has the largest market. Over 60,000 subscribers.
HOST: And there’s another U.S.-linked innovation that Frank is watching: Alphabet’s TARANET laser system.
FRANK: I think I’m most ah expectant of the technology that Google is working on. um Google’s ah parent company is working on Alphabet. too ah That technology is Tara. I wrote about it. And Tara uses, instead of, is not a satellite internet technology. what it uses is a laser beams. Okay, laser beams. By laser beams, glasses reflecting on each other. That’s what it does. And for that to work, you’ve got to have you’ve got to have um this kit on two different buildings and both of them beaming to each other. That’s how it generates its internet. And I think… It is particularly very interesting because what it does is that it eliminates the need for fiber to be laid maybe even for you to pay for fiber. You know I think I think it’s going to be revolutionary. It’s is still in Beta stage. It’s already being tested in some places in Zimbabwe currently.
And the company has said that within a short time that we start seeing it in other um communities across Africa. you know I’m really, really expecting. I’m really looking forward to what that would do. A lot of people have said that’s going to be a competition for Starlink. But I think there’s a space for everyone. We’re talking about 600 million people here.
HOST: Meanwhile, Africa’s major cities are already leapfrogging older systems — and they’re attracting massive U.S. investment in the process.
JAY: There are amazing large urban centers that are bigger than any city in the United States um and are incredibly developed from a technology perspective where we have leapfrogged Markets like the United States and and the UK, for example, because we didn’t have the legacy systems, for example, landlines and cable TV, etc. And we’ve moved directly to Starlink and 4G and 5G internet systems.
And so when you actually dive into it, you’ll realize that Kenya is a really advanced, amazing country to grow in. And that’s why Microsoft have moved their Africa Development Center here. Google have just opened a product center here. Visa have opened a global innovation center here. um Big companies are waking up to this opportunity and are moving in.
HOST: It’s so exciting.
Yes, If connectivity expands, the impact will be profound.
FRANK: I think it will mean that you will see a lot more people pulled out of poverty. You need to get that number to say 60% to 70% smartphone internet users. Then you will get um a continent where people… are connected to the rest of the world. They know what’s really happening. They know where the opportunities are. They know how to tap into those opportunities. They know how to unlock them to yeah um to to bring prosperity or shed prosperity.
HOST: And that’s the mission driving founders like Kendall.
KENDALL: I’ve been working on connectivity for the last 20 years. Internet access is it’s an important aspect for everybody around the world. It’s Africa was lucky to have leapfrogged during the voice era from going straight into mobile connectivity. But right now, we’re also seeing that we need fiber optic cable.
Since the needs of every African has moved past just few bits and bytes of data, you need a large volume of data. And so that problem, nobody has has solved it in a way that is affordable and it’s ubiquitous across the region.
And that’s why I’ve taken I’ve made my life’s walk to get that done. I would have wished I’m further along with my execution. But again, I’ve been able to do what I could do with $5 million in capital.
HOST And he knows that his company has had an outsized impact on other businesses.
KENDALL: I’ve also supported um not just my company, but even start-ups too that use the internet. And they too, they’ve gone to have a multiplier effect on how in terms of creating jobs, in terms of providing services that are electronic and internet-based.
And so along with my so but my company providing infrastructure and startups that are using infrastructure to deliver all kinds of electronic services, be healthcare, be payments, be inte with financial inclusion, we’re able to bridge that gap for places that are still unconnected or under-connected in the region.
HOST: Africa’s internet story is still being written.
We’ve got to remember, that the challenges are real — infrastructure, investment, currency, policy — but so is the momentum.
It’s true – new cables are landing. New companies are rising. And new technologies are emerging that could transform access across the continent. Six hundred million people are still waiting to get online. The question now is whether governments, investors and innovators can work fast enough to bring them there. You’ve been listening to Limitless Africa. See you next time.
