In an interview with Northern African Wireless Communications, Gateway Communications CEO and founder Peter Gbedemah said, "I see growth coming from new smaller markets for us, as well as established markets where we've expanded market share - Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and Chad and Burkina Faso are examples where next generation services could take off.”

In each of these markets individuals, communities, regions and countries are becoming connected at an ever-faster rate. But, some would argue, to be a presence in African telecommunications, you have to be in Nigeria.

Seven years ago, only 2,000 people in a nation of 129 million had Internet accounts. Nigeria’s telecommunications growth was hampered by structural bottlenecks and lack of competition. Handsets were scarce and bandwidth was prohibitively expensive.

Then, in 2001 and 2002, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) licensed four digital mobile operators - Nigerian Telecommunication Limited (Nitel, which had been the sole operator), MTN, Econet, and Globacom - and a period of phenomenally rapid growth followed.

Research conducted in 2003 by Merrill Lynch indicated that the average monthly revenue per cell-phone user in Nigeria had become much higher than that of South Africa and the United States. NCC data in 2004 revealed the Nigerian telecom industry as the country’s fastest growing employer – particularly for service provision on the GSM platform that today connects over two billion people across more than 212 countries and territories around the world.

Delivering pan-African connectivity for Nigeria
Gateway Communications has been an active player in the Nigerian marketplace for many years. Peter Gbedemah, Gateway CEO, says of this unique market place, "Nigeria is a significant part of the African telecom market and this is a reinforcement of the importance of our work in the largest regional economy. A key factor in these projects is that we are able to offer pan-African connectivity to all Nigerians.”