PM Network - July 2015

“Having good connectivity is a good way of encouraging growth,” Dr. Kelly says.

If South Sudan sits at one end of the sub-Saharan ICT infrastructure continuum, South Africa’s mature market is at the other end. In between are countries such as Kenya, Ghana, Ethiopia and Nigeria, which seem capable of making an economic leap forward once infrastructure upgrade projects are completed.

It’s in these developing countries where skilled project managers can make the greatest impact. If they can push projects to the finish line during a period

For example, Mr. Paul and Mr. Abu Ghaida conduct a weekly update meeting with stakeholders, and step in when they learn of conflicts or challenges. Sometimes that means asking two vendors in conflict with one another to meet. Other times, clearance delays at a hub located in one country have affected the rollout of services in other countries.

“If there is a problem in clearing the equipment,
or custom clearance is taking longer than expected,
it’s affecting many countries…that are relying on
connecting to this hub,” Mr. Abu Ghaida says. In
that case, “we need to inform the other CIOs of
this dependency to ensure that they also coordinate
with their vendors or teams. This is our bread and
butter,” he says.

The initiative will help MTN make significant inroads into what has proven a thorny problem across sub-Saharan Africa: extending powerful transoceanic fiber-optic cables from coastal cities to people living across the continent. The broadband network is “certainly the biggest in terms of footprint and capacity across Africa,” Mr. Paul says. “We haven’t had any like this…not to this scale.”

The West African Cable System links southern Africa and Europe. The

14,000-kilometer cable cost US$650 million.

PH OT O B Y © NI C BO TH MA / EP A / CO RBI S

of development marked by inefficiency and corruption—as well as progress and potential— then new African digital economies seem poised to emerge.

In “high-growth countries, building infrastructure is still the name of game,” Mr.

Walker says. “But once you look beyond that, you see a banking sector that’s very sophisticated, and the same with government, healthcare and education. They’re on the cusp of a whole new way of doing things.” PM