Ratio Magazine :: The Inside Track to East Africa’s Economies - Africa Agenda: Press Releases: Balancing Act Publishes Report on East African Telecoms and Internet

N.S.E Share Price

...NSE SHARE Index: 4264.66

UP by 3.08 points | Kakuzi Ord.5.00 77.00 -3.00

| Rea Vipingo Plantations Ltd Ord 5.00 16.45 0.00 | Sasini Ltd Ord 1.00 11.55 0.00 | AccessKenya Group Ltd Ord. 1.00 10.00 0.00 | Car & General (K) Ltd Ord 5.00 49.50 DNT | CMC Holdings Ltd Ord 0.50 10.40 -0.10 | Hutchings Biemer Ltd Ord 5.00 20.25 DNT | Kenya Airways Ltd Ord 5.00 39.50 0.00 | Marshalls (E.A.) Ltd Ord 5.00 14.20 DNT | Nation Media Group Ord. 2.50 173.00 -1.00 | Safaricom Ltd Ord 0.05 4.20 0.05 | Scangroup Ltd Ord 1.00 60.00 -0.50 | Standard Group Ltd Ord 5.00 39.50 DNT | TPS Eastern Africa (Serena) Ltd Ord 1.00 66.50 0.00 | Uchumi Supermarket Ltd Ord 5.00 14.50 DNT | Barclays Bank Ltd Ord 2.00 69.50 0.50 | Centum Investment Co Ltd Ord 0.50 22.25 0.25 | CFC Stanbic Holdings Ltd ord.5.00 79.00 0.00 | Diamond Trust Bank Kenya Ltd Ord 4.00 146.00 -1.00 | Equity Bank Ltd Ord 0.50 28.75 0.25 | Housing Finance Co Ltd Ord 5.00 28.00 0.75 | Jubilee Holdings Ltd Ord 5.00 187.00 1.00 | Kenya Commercial Bank Ltd Ord 1.00 23.25 0.25 | Kenya Re-Insurance Corporation Ltd Ord 2.50 10.60 -0.10 | National Bank of Kenya Ltd Ord 5.00 47.00 0.50 | NIC Bank Ltd 0rd 5.00 52.00 0.50 | Olympia Capital Holdings ltd Ord 5.00 5.00 0.05 | Pan Africa Insurance Holdings Ltd 0rd 5.00 76.00 -3.50 | Standard Chartered Bank Ltd Ord 5.00 275.00 3.00 | The Co-operative Bank of Kenya Ltd Ord 1.00 20.25 0.25 | Athi River Mining Ord 5.00 180.00 -1.00 | B.O.C Kenya Ltd Ord 5.00 150.00 DNT | Bamburi Cement Ltd Ord 5.00 197.00 0.00 | British American Tobacco Kenya Ltd Ord 10.00 280.00 6.00 | Carbacid Investments Ltd Ord 5.00 145.00 -1.00 | Crown Berger Ltd 0rd 5.00 32.50 -1.50 | E.A.Cables Ltd Ord 0.50 19.15 -0.40 | E.A.Portland Cement Ltd Ord 5.00 100.00 -3.00 | East African Breweries Ltd Ord 2.00 181.00 1.00 | Eveready East Africa Ltd Ord.1.00 2.55 0.00 | KenGen Ltd Ord. 2.50 15.50 -0.05 | KenolKobil Ltd Ord 0.05 9.40 -0.10 | Kenya Power & Lighting Co Ltd Ord 2.50 22.50 0.50 | Mumias Sugar Co. Ltd Ord 2.00 8.10 -0.30 | Sameer Africa Ltd Ord 5.00 6.15 -0.05 | Total Kenya Ltd Ord 5.00 28.00 0.25 | Unga Group Ltd Ord 5.00 10.35 -0.10 | City Trust Ltd Ord 5.00 186.00 DNT | Eaagads Ltd Ord 1.25 50.00 -4.50 | Express Ltd Ord 5.00 7.50 -0.20 | Williamson Tea Kenya Ltd Ord 5.00 200.00 0.00 | Kapchorua Tea Co. Ltd Ord Ord 5.00 125.00 DNT | Kenya Orchards Ltd Ord 5.00 3.00 DNT | Limuru Tea Co. Ltd Ord 20.00 305.00 DNT | Kakuzi Ord.5.00 77.00 -3.00 | Rea Vipingo Plantations Ltd Ord 5.00 16.45 0.00 | Sasini Ltd Ord 1.00 11.55 0.00 | AccessKenya Group Ltd Ord. 1.00 10.00 0.00 | Car & General (K) Ltd Ord 5.00 49.50 DNT | CMC Holdings Ltd Ord 0.50 10.40 -0.10 | Hutchings Biemer Ltd Ord 5.00 20.25 DNT | Kenya Airways Ltd Ord 5.00 39.50 0.00 | Marshalls (E.A.) Ltd Ord 5.00 14.20 DNT | Nation Media Group Ord. 2.50 173.00 -1.00 | Safaricom Ltd Ord 0.05 4.20 0.05 | Scangroup Ltd Ord 1.00 60.00 -0.50 | Standard Group Ltd Ord 5.00 39.50 DNT | TPS Eastern Africa (Serena) Ltd Ord 1.00 66.50 0.00 | Uchumi Supermarket Ltd Ord 5.00 14.50 DNT | Barclays Bank Ltd Ord 2.00 69.50 0.50 | Centum Investment Co Ltd Ord 0.50 22.25 0.25 | CFC Stanbic Holdings Ltd ord.5.00 79.00 0.00 | Diamond Trust Bank Kenya Ltd Ord 4.00 146.00 -1.00 | Equity Bank Ltd Ord 0.50 28.75 0.25 | Housing Finance Co Ltd Ord 5.00 28.00 0.75 | Jubilee Holdings Ltd Ord 5.00 187.00 1.00 | Kenya Commercial Bank Ltd Ord 1.00 23.25 0.25 | Kenya Re-Insurance Corporation Ltd Ord 2.50 10.60 -0.10 | National Bank of Kenya Ltd Ord 5.00 47.00 0.50 | NIC Bank Ltd 0rd 5.00 52.00 0.50 | Olympia Capital Holdings ltd Ord 5.00 5.00 0.05 | Pan Africa Insurance Holdings Ltd 0rd 5.00 76.00 -3.50 | Standard Chartered Bank Ltd Ord 5.00 275.00 3.00 | The Co-operative Bank of Kenya Ltd Ord 1.00 20.25 0.25 | Athi River Mining Ord 5.00 180.00 -1.00 | B.O.C Kenya Ltd Ord 5.00 150.00 DNT | Bamburi Cement Ltd Ord 5.00 197.00 0.00 | British American Tobacco Kenya Ltd Ord 10.00 280.00 6.00 | Carbacid Investments Ltd Ord 5.00 145.00 -1.00 | Crown Berger Ltd 0rd 5.00 32.50 -1.50 | E.A.Cables Ltd Ord 0.50 19.15 -0.40 | E.A.Portland Cement Ltd Ord 5.00 100.00 -3.00 | East African Breweries Ltd Ord 2.00 181.00 1.00 | Eveready East Africa Ltd Ord.1.00 2.55 0.00 | KenGen Ltd Ord. 2.50 15.50 -0.05 | KenolKobil Ltd Ord 0.05 9.40 -0.10 | Kenya Power & Lighting Co Ltd Ord 2.50 22.50 0.50 | Mumias Sugar Co. Ltd Ord 2.00 8.10 -0.30 | Sameer Africa Ltd Ord 5.00 6.15 -0.05 | Total Kenya Ltd Ord 5.00 28.00 0.25 | Unga Group Ltd Ord 5.00 10.35 -0.10 | City Trust Ltd Ord 5.00 186.00 DNT | Eaagads Ltd Ord 1.25 50.00 -4.50 | Express Ltd Ord 5.00 7.50 -0.20 | Williamson Tea Kenya Ltd Ord 5.00 200.00 0.00 | Kapchorua Tea Co. Ltd Ord Ord 5.00 125.00 DNT | Kenya Orchards Ltd Ord 5.00 3.00 DNT | Limuru Tea Co. Ltd Ord 20.00 305.00 DNT

Africa Agenda: Press Releases: Balancing Act Publishes Report on East African Telecoms and Internet

Monday, 20 July 2009

London, 19 July 2009 --- The top mobile markets in East Africa and the Indian Ocean islands are amongst the most liberalised on the continent. The top three markets are Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda and they all have about 10m subscribers.

Each of these three markets has been a laboratory for competition. For example, Tanzania has issued seven mobile licences and Uganda has issued six. The number of operators has resulted in increased investment and marketing spend in the top three markets. And in all three countries, this competition has benefited African consumers as the cost of owning and using a mobile phone has fallen
Tanzania and Uganda have what is known as a unified licensing framework and this has encouraged operators to offer mobile broadband to their subscribers. Each country now has several hundred thousand subscribers who access the Internet using their mobile phone.

Based on data gathered for Balancing Act’s new ‘African Telecoms and Internet Markets Report– Part 3: East Africa’, there have been dramatic drops in mobile charges, opening the market to a wider number of users. For example in Kenya, between Q3 2007 and Q4 2008, calls to other subscribers on the same network fell by over half, from KES18.10 to KES8.98. Over the same period, SMS text messages to subscribers on another network fell from KES5.03 to KES3.69.

Amongst the 15 countries in this report, there are really only five countries that have any scale in population terms: Ethiopia (83m), Tanzania (39.5m), Kenya (38m), Uganda (29.5m) and Madagascar (20m). At the other end of the scale, there are five countries and territories – Comoros, Djibouti, Mayotte, Reunion and Seychelles – with populations of below 1m.

Nevertheless, it is in the main the Indian Ocean Islands with small populations that have much higher GDP per capita than the more populous countries: Reunion (USD23,501), Seychelles (USD18,700), Mauritius (USD11,300) with a population of 1.27 million, Mayotte (USD4,900) and Djibouti (USD3,700). Tourism has driven growth in Mauritius and Seychelles and the connection to France for the territories of Mayotte and Reunion has had a similar effect. All the other countries in this report range between USD160 (Ethiopia) to USD1,100 (Comoros). None of these countries has oil, but Tanzania has natural gas reserves.

The reason? The Seacom international cable started operating on 23 July 2009 and the Kenyan Government initiated project TEAMS will follow shortly thereafter. And in Q3 2010 will come EASSy, the fibre project that started it all, but is now lagging well behind in the field.
In addition, France Telecom has a project called LION that will connect various of the Indian Ocean islands into these new international cable connections in October 2009: the build has been completed and it now awaits licensing approval.

The mainland East African countries currently connected by satellite will see a large increase in international bandwidth used as prices come down from around USD5,000 per mbps to something closer to USD500 on the new fibre connections. This cheaper bandwidth price should lead to cheaper Internet prices for consumers.

‘African Telecoms and Internet Markets – Part 3: East Africa’ includes:

Detailed country profiles of Burundi, Comores, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopias, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mayotte, Reunion, Rwanda, Seychelles, Somalia, Tanzania and Uganda.
Comparisons of ICT up-take in Madagascar, Mauritius and Reunion. Looking at these three places that have very different wealth levels enables a clear picture to emerge of what level of ICT uptake is achieved against a particular wealth level.
Africa’s incumbent telco privatisations – what opportunities exist at the bottom of the barrel? This section provides a look at the remaining unsold Government telecoms companies and which of them are interesting for external investors.
Detailed data in spreadsheet form from 2005 and 2008 covering all 15 countries.

Details are available on: http://www.balancingact-africa.com/publications.html

Share this article with others: