March 2017: Institutional Investing in Infrastructure spoke with Hurley Doddy, a Founding Partner and Co-CEO of Emerging Capital Partners (ECP), to discuss opportunities for investment in infrastructure in Africa.
Mr. Doddy featured alongside experts from prominent institutions and investment firms including the African Development Bank (AfDB), African Infrastructure Investment Managers (AIIM), and STANLIB. All participants stressed the need for continued infrastructure investment in Africa, whether in information and communications technology, energy, roads, or water. The Africa Infrastructure Country Diagnostic (AICD) issued by the AfDB estimates an infrastructure financing gap of over US$50 billion in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Mr. Doddy highlighted that over the last 16 years, the firm has witnessed the continent’s telecommunications boom, during which Africans “essentially skipped landlines and [went] straight to smartphones.” Today there are around 750 million cell phones in Africa, up from only 25 million in 1999. ECP invested in IHS Towers in 2011, which is one of Africa’s leading telecommunications towers companies, operating over 22,000 towers across four countries. Further investment in broadband and data is needed as demand for these services rise.
The full article is available to subscribers of Institutional Investing in Infrastructure, here.
