African telecom towers going green: Africa’s booming telecom industry is encouraging the Mauritius-based Greenwish to plonk down USD 800 mn on solar-powered telecommunications towers across the continent, says Bloomberg. The project has the potential to turn a lot of wheels and could spur further economic growth, especially for energy-starved Sub-Saharan African countries, by reducing the costs of power by as much as 30%, according to Greenwish founder and CEO Charlotte Aubin-Kalaidjian. In partnership with Orange, Greenwish will first build 250 towers in the Democratic Republic of Congo, with plans to expand into other countries with 10,000 towers by 2020. Aubin-Kalaidjian is already in talks with other telcos and “expects to extend its partnership with Orange beyond the DRC, moving into other markets such as Nigeria, Senegal, Egypt, and Ivory Coast.” With over 240k mobile towers in Africa, the mobile and internet industry offers countless opportunities.

“Africa’s fintech revolution” is driving development: The financial tech industry in Africa is a by-product — and a major driver — of the continent’s development efforts, Marie-Hélène Gyorog writes for The McGill International Review. “Africa’s growing infrastructure, paired with fewer transition costs and its frail banking structure, has essentially created an ideal environment for mobile payment applications to thrive and spread much faster than in countries with strong banking cultures,” she says. A new type of entrepreneur in tune with local market needs is emerging in countries including Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, and Morocco, where banking penetration is low and smartphone use is widespread. Fintech entrepreneurs are building “new infrastructure essential to the growth of local businesses while providing greater inclusion of mns of people into the national economy.” They are also giving “government and central banks a framework for creating national digital payments and the data to do so.”