The Top Five African Markets for ICT Investment - 2012

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Benchmarking the Top 5 most attractive markets for ICT investment in Africa

BuddeComm has developed the ICT Investment Attractivity (ICT-IA) index as a tool for investors to identify the most attractive information and communication technology (ICT) markets in a target region, be it worldwide or, for the purpose of this report, in Africa which continues to offer the highest growth rates and return on investment (ROI).

These extraordinary returns do, however, come at the expense of significant risks that African markets also pose to foreign investors. The ICT-IA index therefore takes various factors into account, including market growth, remaining potential, current and future services (voice and broadband data/internet), consumer spending power, and general business climate, to help investors identify those markets offering the best risk-to-opportunity ratio.

This report ranks the Top 5 most attractive African ICT markets, benchmarks them against each other and against regional averages, outlines currently existing or upcoming investment opportunities and analyses the risks specific to each market. The end result is a single index figure that tells investors 'how many times more attractive' a country's ICT market is compared to others, taking all the above criteria into account.

Market highlights:

• GDP growth between 4 and 8% per year
• 150 million potential customers in five countries
• More than 100% annual subscriber growth
• More than 1000% growth potential over the coming years
• Mergers and acquisitions (M&A)
• Telco privatisations
• Management contracts
• Market liberalisation
• New operator licences
• Broadband boom expected from new fibre networks

Countries covered in this report:

• Eritrea
• Ethiopia
• Djibouti
• DR Congo
• Burundi