In this report, we describe what an average formal sub-Saharan economy actually looks like, and then explain areas of consideration for operators as they access this potential market. At Pyramid Research, we find that for African enterprises in general, fixed access is far from irrelevant and private connectivity still represents one of the largest opportunities. This does not replace but complements the explosive growth of mobile technologies in the mass markets of sub-Saharan Africa. We also observe that the presence of both large enterprises and multiple infrastructure projects justify the expanding breadth of operator portfolios, which now also include IT solutions. Finally, we see that small and medium enterprises can be targeted effectively with integrated off-the-shelf solutions, while sole traders would embrace technologies that enable quick and ad hoc commercial transactions that are more flexible than current mobile payment solutions mostly oriented to personal use.
In the first part of this report, we survey the landscape by focusing on the high-level business demographics of the sub-Saharan Africa, as well as on the overall adoption of basic telecommunications services. Then we explain how the formal enterprises of the region can be successfully targeted by telecom operators. Using cases from continental operators, such as MTN and France Telecom, we provide evidence for some of the trends we observe and discuss what we see as best practices.
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