Businesses in Africa must consider themselves regional rather than national companies and think outside the box when it comes to funding in order to overcome the lack of internet exchange points (IXPs) on the continent.
Winston Ritson, chief operating officer (COO) at iConnect Zambia, told the Broadband Forum, in Harare, today, that local content was crucial, but was difficult to promote without more local IXPs to make delivery of the content cheaper.
He said businesses in the region must look outside their own country if they were to grow their markets.
“If we are looking at the local market, that pool of 12 million Zimbabweans is fixed and is going to grow slowly, so we have to look outside our borders,” he said.
Ritson added companies must be creative when it comes to obtaining funding to overcome such obstacles.
“It means we have to start thinking outside the box, because without bankers and VC guys any initiative will not take off,” said.
iConnect has launched an e-learning platform, partnering with 80 schools, but Ritson said delivery of content in the region was difficult with the lack of IXPs.
He added: “It is school in a box. Your content is delivered overnight. But we cannot deliver the content in isolation, because we do not live in America where the access is good.
“As a region we don’t have that richness in terms of access points.”
