Isabel dos Santos calls for more energy investment to pave way for 5G

Energy needs to have the same investment as Telecommunications

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CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA - Media OutReach - 15 November 2019 – Isabel dos Santos appealed
for the need of a strong investment in the Energy sector in Africa, so that the
5G network is a reality on the continent. “Telecom operators are eager to
deploy the 5G network, but that requires a strong investment in Energy, just as
it happened in Telecommunications.”

The businesswoman was speaking as Unitel’s
representative at AfricaCom 2019, one of Africa’s largest Technology and
Telecommunications conferences, in Cape Town. “I would like to see in the
Energy sector the same thing that happened in the Telecommunications sector: a
big investment from the private sector.” And she added: “Today we are 1.2
billion people in Africa, by 2050 we will be 2.4 billion – more than in China.
The investment required in infrastructure is huge”.

Isabel dos Santos said that Unitel, the largest
mobile operator in Angola, has invested for the past 20 years over US $ 2.2
billion in fiber optic cables, through private money. “Today we have 14,000 km
of optical fiber, we promote the expansion of the internet nationwide with one
of the most modern telecommunications networks in Africa. We bring people
together, we bring companies together, we support business and we see our
country grow, develop and compete internationally”, she said. “It is important
that companies and governments work together. If African governments create
business models, it will stimulate positive investment environments.”

Building a large e-commerce platform is one of
Africa’s biggest opportunities

“Africa has to build a big e-commerce platform,
which will bring great opportunities. There are fewer barriers, costs go down
and we will be able to communicate our product better and to a much larger
audience.” While highlighting the value of e-commerce, the businesswoman also
said that “the next big companies in Africa will be largely driven by digital
economy and e-commerce”.

Talking about digital development, Isabel dos
Santos stressed that “there needs to be infrastructure, markets and financial
services that support it”.

AfricaCom is one of the largest and most
relevant technology events on the African continent. The conference brings
together some of the top experts in the Technology and Telecommunications
sector, over 450 business leaders and around 15,000 visitors to the trend
debate and search for solutions to today’s technology challenges. The 2019
edition takes place from 12 to 14 November in Cape Town (Cape Town
International Convention Center – CTICC), South Africa, and this year presents
for the first time the edition of AfricaTech, which comes to answer to the need
for discussion and deepening of issues relevant to the sector and emerging on
the global agenda, such as Artificial Intelligence, the Internet of Things,
Fintech, or Blockchain.