Africa’s digital transformation is accelerating, but inclusion remains uneven.  While there has been a lot of progress, only about 38% of its population was online in 2024, compared with 68% globally. Rural areas especially lag: just 23% of rural Africans used the internet in 2024, versus 57% in urban areas, marking one of the world’s widest urban-rural gaps. 

The central challenge is no longer about ambition, but about scale: connecting the unconnected, strengthening backbone infrastructure, and ensuring that digital economies grow in ways that leave no region or community behind. At this scale, fragmented infrastructure simply won’t cut it.  

Shared infrastructure is emerging as one of the most effective pathways forward. In practice, this could take the form of tower sharing, fibre backbone collaborations, shared data centres and cloud resources, or spectrum sharing models. Rather than duplicating costly assets, operators and governments are increasingly turning to models that pool resources, reduce deployment costs, and open new investment channels. It’s about leveraging collective assets to overcome both physical and economic barriers.  

In this #TechTalkThursday article, we will examine how shared infrastructure can serve as a catalyst for Africa’s inclusive digital future. 

Scaling Connectivity Through Efficiency, Resilience, and Inclusion 

Africa’s digital transformation hinges on one foundational challenge: building connectivity affordably, reliably, and at scale. Shared infrastructure delivers on all three fronts and is already reshaping the continent’s digital landscape.

The rationale is straightforward. By reducing duplication of assets and encouraging collaboration, operators cut costs while extending coverage to markets that would otherwise remain commercially unviable. A clear illustration is the March 2025 infrastructure-sharing deal between MTN Group and Airtel Africa in Nigeria and Uganda. Most recently, Airtel Africa and Vodacom announced a strategic infrastructure-sharing agreement across Mozambique, Tanzania, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (August 2025). By colocating towers and jointly leveraging fibre routes, the operators project capital and operational expenditure savings of up to 30 percent, particularly in rural zones. This kind of efficiency not only lowers the cost of network expansion but also accelerates the timeline for broadband and next-generation rollouts. 

“Duplication occurs when multiple operators build networks targeting the same customers in the same locations, but they can share infrastructure. So if you already have fibre in a place, it is better to share it rather than having two fibres for two different operators for the same services. For example, if you have a mobile network tower, instead of building another one, you share access to the existing tower. Sharing the infrastructure reduces operational costs, reduces capital expenditure, and also helps to identify the gaps so that they can be filled together rather than duplicating what has already been done by others. This can help to drive down costs and therefore create more profitable business.” 

– Emmanuel Manasseh, Regional Director Africa, International Telecommunication Union (ITU) 

Backbone collaboration further strengthens the case. The new 3,500 km Lagos–Dakar terrestrial fibre corridor, developed by Phase3 and Sonatel, is not merely a connectivity upgrade; it creates a high-capacity and resilient regional spine. For markets heavily dependent on fragile subsea cables, this terrestrial route provides redundancy and stability that digital economies cannot grow without. Similarly, Nigeria’s plan to extend its fibre network to 125,000 km by the end of 2025, supported by USD 700 million in development financing, reflects the national recognition that inclusive growth is only possible with dense, shared backbone infrastructure.

Data centre and cloud collaboration is another pressing frontier. Africa currently holds under 1 percent of global data centre capacity, despite representing 18 percent of the global population. This gap constrains everything from fintech innovation, e-government systems and AI. Shared neutral facilities and regional cloud platforms are beginning to close this divide, offering both affordability and digital sovereignty. For smaller service providers and startups, shared resources lower entry barriers and reduce dependence on overseas hosting, which often inflates costs and undermines latency-sensitive services.

Spectrum is one of the most valuable resources in Africa’s connectivity journey, but it is also scarce and unevenly distributed. Spectrum sharing allows operators to optimise existing bandwidth, extend coverage into underserved areas, and reduce the cost of network deployment. Dynamic sharing models, such as spectrum pooling and trading, are gradually gaining traction in Africa, particularly as regulators explore more flexible licensing frameworks. These approaches can unlock greater efficiency and ensure that available spectrum is used where it is most needed. 

The Payoff: Affordability, Innovation, and Inclusion 

The measurable effects of shared infrastructure models are beginning to surface. A 2025 study  titled “The Impact of Shared Telecom Infrastructure on Digital Connectivity and Inclusion” by Georges V. Houngbonon, Marc Ivaldi, Emil Palikot, and Davide Strusani analysed 107 tower-sharing agreements across 28 low-income countries.Its findings reveal how infrastructure sharing directly advances affordability and inclusion outcomes:

Affordability of services for end-users

The study reported a USD 1.60 drop in the mobile price index from a baseline of USD 3.16, and a USD 1.00 reduction in the average cost of one gigabyte of data from USD 3.41. For low-income households, this is not a marginal saving but a meaningful shift.

In Africa, affordability consistently emerges as the leading barrier to internet use, with data costs often exceeding the globally recommended threshold of 2 percent of monthly income. By lowering service costs through shared infrastructure, millions of people who previously rationed connectivity or relied on informal access points can afford personal and consistent connections. 

Enabling local innovation ecosystems

Cheaper connectivity strengthens more than household access. It expands the customer base for startups, small businesses, and digital platforms that depend on broad reach. In African cities where tech hubs are emerging, from Lagos to Nairobi to Kigali, local entrepreneurs often face the challenge of serving a market where potential users are online only intermittently. 

More affordable data creates deeper and more reliable demand, allowing digital service providers to scale faster. For mobile operators, shared infrastructure reduces capital and operational costs, freeing resources for investment in platforms, fintech solutions, and value-added services that fuel Africa’s growing digital economy.

Bridging gender and rural-urban divides in access

Perhaps most importantly, the benefits of shared infrastructure are not evenly distributed but concentrated where gaps have historically been most pronounced. The study recorded a 4.7 percentage point increase in rural internet adoption and a 3.6 percentage point rise in usage among female-headed households. 

These shifts underscore how shared infrastructure can serve as a tool for narrowing divides that have long excluded rural populations and women from the digital economy. 

Challenges and the Path to an Inclusive Digital Future

Shared infrastructure in Africa faces significant challenges. Policy fragmentation, regulatory uncertainty, and the tension between competition and collaboration can slow progress, while concerns over security and digital sovereignty further complicate cross-border initiatives.  

“Digital broadband mapping is one of the strategies to drive affordability, and you cannot drive affordability without strong political will. But we need to avoid duplication in the investment of infrastructure. Broadband mapping is one of the key projects that helps identify the gaps, and then, instead of duplicating the investment, you focus on filling the gaps.”

– Emmanuel Manasseh, Regional Director Africa, International Telecommunication Union (ITU)  

However, overcoming these obstacles requires strategic public-private partnerships and regulatory harmonisation. By aligning incentives and enabling collaboration, Africa can unlock affordable, reliable connectivity, foster local innovation, and bridge rural and gender divides. Shared infrastructure is not merely a technical solution—it is a cornerstone for building an inclusive digital economy.

“When we talk about investment in infrastructure and  the duplications, they are right. The economy is driven by the private sector. The private sector has a say first. At the end of the day, it is a business. It is not a charity. So it is a private sector–first investment before the government can chip in. You may see that the private sector will not deploy infrastructure in areas which are not lucrative, but the government has an obligation not to leave anyone behind. That is the role of the government.” 

-Lacina Kone, CEO, Smart Africa 

“Building the future isn’t cheap. We’ve committed 60 billion Rand over the next five years to ensure South Africa has the infrastructure it needs to thrive… Our responsibility as a private sector isn’t just to innovate but to listen. We must design solutions that address the challenges faced by communities and governments alike.”

-Sitho Mdlalose, CEO of Vodacom South Africa