Rwanda and Uganda are emerging a favourite destinations in Africa for investment in information and communications technology.
However, the leading investor destinations in the ICT sector in sub Saharan Africa – Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa – have recorded a decline in investment flows, the East African reported.
During 2017 $200 million was spent in East African technology-based investments with Kenya attracting $147 million.
However, Rwanda and Uganda are catching up and taking a slice of the pie that has traditionally gone to Kenya, taking in a combined $52.7 million last year, of which $36.7 million went to Rwanda.
A new report by the GSM Association (GSMA), the global lobby for mobile network operators, titled The Mobile Economy in sub-Saharan Africa, shows that Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa accounted for 76 percent of total funds raised by startups in the region.
“However, the downward trend in the combined share of investments for the three markets, from more than 80 percent in 2015 and 2016, shows growing investor appetite for other markets, notably Ghana, Rwanda, Senegal and Uganda,” the report says.
A total of $560 million was raised in 2017 by 124 tech start-ups across Africa, a 53 percent increase from the previous year.
– African News Agency (ANA)