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Business Reporter

GLOBAL technology company Facebook’s investments in infrastructure and connectivity across the region are set to deliver over us$57 billion in economic benefits over the next five years (2020–2024).

On Tuesday, Facebook released findings from “The Impact of Facebook’s Connectivity Initiatives in Sub-Saharan Africa”, a study conducted by Analysys Mason that highlights how the giant company’s connectivity investments will grow Africa’s Economy by US$57 billion in the next five years.

According to The Economist Intelligence Unit – Inclusive Internet Index 2020, over 800 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa are unconnected to the internet. Over the years, Facebook has invested in infrastructure and partnerships to address the barriers to connectivity, such as the lack of availability in infrastructure, affordability, relevance and readiness  to get online, said the company in a press release.

Also aiming to provide financial and technical inputs that can make infrastructure easier and cheaper to deploy within the continent, Facebook’s infrastructure investments and connectivity initiatives include investing in submarine cables, edge networks and backhaul fiber investments through Open Transport Networks (OTNs).

Facebook is  supporting mobile operators through facilitation initiatives covering express wi-fi, rural access partnership among other telecom infrastructure projects. The projects cover several countries across the African continent.

Some of the economic benefits from the projects include the enhancement of operators’ ability to extend the coverage of broad networks, thus enabling more people to go online.

These increases in take-up and internet traffic mean that people are more able to interact with each other, trade online and perform online transactions.

They also create benefits for individuals and wider economic and social benefits through improved health and welfare outcomes, skills and education, job creation and productivity.

Commenting on these developments, Facebook’s Africa public policy director, Kojo Boakye, said: “At Facebook we’re committed to Africa and the role that we can play in improving the continent’s global competitiveness.

“Over the last three years we’ve heavily invested in infrastructure and connectivity initiatives that aim to affordably connect people on this continent and create tangible social-economic benefits.

“These efforts are part of a complex solution that requires all stakeholders — including mobile operators, infrastructure providers and governments — to work together for the common good.

“We are only 1 percent finished and remain committed to this exciting journey and working with all our partners along the way.”