Nokia Sees Business Potential in Africa Despite Economic Slowdown

Despite economic slowdown in many African nations, Nokia remains bullish on the business prospects in the continent. The Finnish network equipment maker sees growth potential in Africa, while flat growth is being witnessed in the global markets. The consolidation phase in the telecommunications is attracting huge investments into the industry. Nokia sees very strong fundamentals of African telecom industry.

Nokia mostly deals with telecommunications operators and governments in Africa. The Finnish major once ruled mobile devices market and subsequently, it sold its mobile handset business to Microsoft in 2014. However, Nokia and Microsoft both the companies have been hit by the economic slowdown and weaker currencies. 

According to reports by Reuters, the ongoing consolidation process in the telecommunications sector is propelling mobile operators to enhance investment levels. The mobile operators require capital investment for acquiring spectrum, Deon Geyser, Nokia Solutions and Networks head for Southern Africa. 

Deon Geyser said: "You still have a significant amount of voice growth, even though revenue is flat, and you still have significant growth in data. The fundamental technology trends remain unchanged and the company is bullish about Africa."

Nokia has announced that Amr Karim El-Leithy would be Head of Middle East and Africa operations after the acquisition process of Alcatel-Lucent. At present, El-Leithy is President for Middle East, Turkey and Africa operations at Alcatel-Lucent. Nokia is keen on enhancing customer service, innovation and quality for African consumers. 

Several African countries are witnessing economic slowdown. The oil-rich Angola's GDP growth is expected to slip below four percent for 2015 from 12 percent growth recorded three years ago. Zimbia's GDP is also projected to slowdown to four percent as lower prices of copper impacted the economy. 

However, these economic factors may not influence the telecom sector majorly, observes Geyser. "The consolidation on the continent will be good for us," he said. Nokia has made an offer to take over Alcatel-Lucent for Euro 15.6 billion. 

Nokia is also focusing on Latin American markets. Recently it signed partnership agreement with Oi Brasil for developing Internet of Things (IoT) solutions for Latin America. Nokia Networks will set up LTE IoT lab, which is first-of-its-kind in Latin America. It'll facilitate LTE-based solutions to enable machine-to-machine communication for the connected world.

Nokia's network division posted net sales of Euro 2.88 billion ($3.09 billion) for the third quarter. The sales volume was down by two percent on year-on-year, but rose five percent from the previous second quarter. The network division recorded sales of Euro 298 million in the Middle East and African markets during the third quarter. This was up six percent on year-on-year basis and one percent growth from the previous second quarter.