Christopher C Edordu is the President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the African Export-Import
Bank (Afreximbank) based in Cairo, Egypt. Before joining the Afreximbank he served as the Managing
Director and CEO of the Nigerian Export-Import Bank. Mr Edordu has also held several positions in the
Central Bank of Nigeria from which he retired as Departmental Director. Mr Edordu has also held several
Board and similar positions within the Nigerian governmental system. Mr Edordu has been actively engaged
in international trade finance, as well as project finance including the financing of numerous telecommuni-
cation projects in Africa for many years.
Innovations in Telecommunications Financing in Africa
Until the mid 1980s, Africa's telecommunications sector was dominated by government-
owned monopolies that provided poor service. Only 14 people per thousand had telephones
– far below the world average. During the 1990s, Africa began liberalising and privatising its
telecommunications sectors. Wireless and mobile telephony allowed Africa’s telecom sector
to leapfrog older technologies and required less investment, while Internet growth created
demand for data services. All this combined to change telecommunications sector financing
in Africa and made it more risk responsive.
by C C Edordu, President of the African Export-Import Bank
REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Connect-World Africa & The Middle East
www.connect-world.com17
Telecom Financing in Africa before
the Mid 1980s
Before economic reforms, Africa’s
telecommunications utilities were gov-
ernment owned monopolies. Telephone
utilities, often operating at a loss, were
financed largely from government budg-
ets. Governments also provided loans
and secured external financing from
multilateral development banks for the
utilities. The World Bank and the
African Development Bank provided the
bulk of such financings. Many govern-
ments also obtained funding for their
telecom companies
from bilateral
sources usually Development Finance
Institutions (DFI