Policy Makers, Regulators and Technology Providers need to create a fertile environment for Communication Service Providers and local governments to deliver a service that supports national, regional and local socio-economic growth and the development of Smart Cities.

According to the World Bank and ITU, estimated expenditure on ICT in Africa has risen from USD$60-65b in 2005 to USD$155-180b in 2016. This presents a valuable opportunity in service development but access to affordable infrastructure is still one of the major factors affecting the use of ICT in Africa. Africans paying on average, 25% of Gross National Income on mobile cellular calls compared with just 11% in other developing regions. In Africa, only 10% of households have access to internet compared with 82% in Europe with fi xed broadband standing at around 0.5% in Africa.

A lack of reliable Datacentres and General Infrastructures leads to higher costs for SaaS, Cloud and other on demand services offered by global providers. While these on demand services enable communication service providers to offer high end services without heavy investment, the development of local, robust and reliable infrastructures is the only viable long term solution for governments, regulators and service providers to take control of the affordability, reliability and effectiveness of their services.

Smart Cities, Smart Government, Smart Enterprise and other Smart initiatives are key development agendas for driving growth and improving quality of life in Africa and are all dependent on the affordability of the underlying, national ICT infrastructures.

C2C 2017 will assess smarter policies, regulations, strategies and business models that contribute greatly to the affordability of infrastructures:

Governments play a key role in attracting international investment in national and

regional infrastructure, starting with a recognition of the value of such investment.

Deputy President of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, at the recently concluded World

Economic Forum, said that Investment in Infrastructure had been a key economic

driver for South Africa and the wider region with the ‘Presidential Infrastructure

Coordinating Commission’ advocating innovative partnerships with the private

sector.

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Smarter Infrastructure is more effi cient, more reliable

and more cost effective.

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Technology providers and vendors o� er a variety of models to put solutions

within reach of governments and the private sector with innovative payment and

� nancing models, Partnerships and Joint Ventures etc.

E� ective policies and regulations support a� ordability, reliability and

e� ectiveness of service delivery. Open Access models, Infrastructure Sharing,

Spectrum Management, Rights of Way, Taxation, Universal Service Funds etc.

Innovative business models play a critical role in the development of smarter

infrastructures. Partnerships and alliances, active and passive infrastructure sharing,

outsourcing non-core services, infrastructure asset inventory management, network

optimisation, hybrid power, investment strategies etc.

Making infrastructure decisions based on hindsight would be extremely valuable

but clearly not possible. The next best thing is the use of Smarter Thinking i.e.

gathering key datasets from critical business areas and analysing this data to create

an accurate Predictive Analysis of development requirements and ensuring money

is spent on the most important infrastructure development imperatives. Smarter

Thinking in infrastructure development results in improved quality and relevance of

service, improved reliability and huge cost savings.

C2C 2017 is a two day, high impact agenda driving positive interaction between high level attendees from across Africa. Central, Local and Municipal Governments, Regulators, Communication Service Providers and Major End Users from across Africa along with a carefully selected number of international Solution Providers.

The innovative programme will start with a networking Launch Night followed by two full days of Case Study keynote Presentations, Smarter Infrastructure Awards, Panel discussions, Round Table and Workshop sessions. Networking and interaction will be supported throughout the summit with a dedicated event website and app.

Visit our website www.extensia-events.com and contact us directly at any time for further information

ah@extensia-ltd.com +44 (0)1904 622381