Closely related to the UBA example of how corporate Africa is removing borders is the case of the Kenya-based Equity Bank. The bank recently began its expansion into other East African countries by acquiring local banks. Reconciling employees of the acquired banks with Equity Bank's corporate culture was time-consuming and expensive.
To mitigate these costs for new operations in Rwanda and Tanzania, the company brought 100 employees from those markets to work at headquarters in Kenya before they began work at the branches abroad. This throws up an interesting aspect of economic integration which is that it ultimately enhances social and cultural integration.
Today, Africans are learning more about their cultures and those of other Africans because of companies like Multichoice. There is hardly any Kenyan with a satellite connection who has not watched a Nigerian drama on the very popular Africa Magic channel. In Nigeria, and I believe several parts of Africa, a song called Khona has been on the lips of young people for a while now because it has been actively promoted by African multinationals in the entertainment industry. I am told it is a song by the South African music group Mafikizolo.
The effect is that Africans are more and more connecting with their brothers and sisters than it was decades ago. Wherever I go in Sub-Saharan Africa, people call me "Igwe", obviously copying what they have watched in Nollywood films on African magic. The success stories of the private sector in Africa's integration efforts are many. It seems to me that whatever the public sector gives, the private sector makes greater.
Let me illustrate this with the private sector- led telecommunications revolution that has enhanced connectivity in Africa and beyond. In 1999, when I returned as President of Nigeria, the telecoms sector had only one licensed operator which was the stateowned NlTEL. The company had an installed capacity of 450,000 telephone lines in the entire country. Most of which were owned by government offices or officials by the way.
Soon after, we began the process of liberalizing the sector. By 2007, owing to the mobile network, this number had increased to 38 million, making Nigeria the country with the world's fastest-growing teledensity. By April 2010, the number of mobile phone lines had increased to 85 million, with many people subscribing to multiple lines. That number has exponentially grown to 113 million active lines as of December 2012.
To provide the infrastructure that supports this high teledensity, another Nigerian company funded by the Africa Finance Corporation, the Pan-African Infrastructure Development Fund (PAIDF) and a number of Nigerian banks, has built and is expanding a submarine communications cable with potential to connect at least ten African countries, including Nigeria, Ghana, Morocco, Senegal, Gabon, Coted'Ivoire, Angola, South Africa, Congo and Namibia. For these to continue to happen, these must be energy, mutual confidence and mutual encouragement between the private sector leaders and public sector leaders.
Source: Opening Up Africa to Africa (V) (http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/opening-up-africa-to-africa-v/)