Michael Tobin Interview, TMT Finance

Large scale datacentre investment opportunities are increasing in Sub-Saharan Africa as key commercial hubs benefit from the critical combination of high quality international backbone infrastructure (subsea cable) connectivity and mushrooming local demand for data, say investment leaders.

Michael Tobin OBE, former chief executive of data center operator Telecity, who is a key speaker at the upcoming TMT Finance Africa 2017(www.TMTFinance.com/africa) event in London, said there is massive potential for datacentre investment in Su

b-Saharan Africa and conditions in three markets especially standout.

“Clearly South Africa is the core environment,” said Tobin. “We’re just starting to see the big boys go there: Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and Netflix arrived last year, and you are seeing burgeoning volumes on the internet exchanges. Teraco, which is owned by Permira, is the standout asset by a million miles. It has the NAPAfrica infrastructure within it, so much of the traffic in all of the 53 countries in Africa goes through that.”

Tobin will make a keynote presentation on African datacentre investment and feature on the datacentre and cloud leadership panel at TMT Finance Africa 2017 (www.TMTFinance.com/africa) in London on May 24.

The executive only event, which is in its eight year in London, gathers international telecom, media and tech investment leaders, investment bankers and advisers to assess the latest pan-African opportunities for investment.

Participating companies include: Orange, MTN Group, Airtel Africa, Millicom, Liquid Telecom, Google, Microsoft, American Tower Corporation, Eaton Towers, Helios Towers Africa, SEACOM, MainOne Cable, Digital Bridge, Intelsat, WIOCC, Africa Mobile Networks, Rack Centre, Societe Generale, Savannah Fund, Citi, Standard Bank Group, African Capital Alliance, Credit Suisse, IFC, the World Bank, iColo, Atlas Mara Ltd, WorldRemit, PayStack, Vanu, African Broadcast Network,  Fibersat, Sliide Airtime, Connect Africa, Government of Benin, Draper Dark Flow, Ringier Africa, Norton Rose Fullbright, Amadeus Capital Partners, Chanzo Capital, Intelsat, Digital World Capital, Jumia Food, M-KOPA Solar, Flexenclosure and Hardiman Telecom.

Find out more at www.TMTFinance.com/africa

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