#15: Orange - How the former French monopoly telco entered & expanded in Francophone Africa

Afrobility: Africa Tech & Business

Overview: Today we’re going to talk about Orange - The 2nd largest telco in Africa, we’ll discuss its French founding, global expansion, success in Africa, non-telco businesses & end with our views on its future outlook. This episode was recorded on Nov 1, 2020.

Companies discussed: Orange S.A. (France Telecom), Orange Africa, Airtel Africa, Bharti Airtel Group, Celtel, Zain, MTN, Reliance Jio, Safaricom, Sonatel, Orascom, Mobinil, Ivoiris & Meditel

Business concepts discussed: Telco developing markets growth strategy, mobile money, telco M&A strategy & developing markets growth strategy.

Conversation highlights:

• (01:22) - Why we’re talking about Orange and why it’s important to African tech
  
• (05:19) - History of Orange Group and France Telecom
  
• (10:22) - History of Orange Africa
  
• (17:56) - Europe's historical influence in Africa tech (vs Indian and Chinese influence today)
  
• (29:10) - Orange Africa’s non-telco businesses (primarily Orange Money)
  
• (41:58) - Orange Africa today and growth opportunities
  
• (47:18) - Orange expanding to South Africa and Nigeria?
  
• (53:55) - Bankole’s thoughts and overall outlook
  
• (1:01:27) - Olumide’s thoughts and overall outlook
  
• (1:05:59) - Recommendations, small wins and open questions
  

Olumide’s recommendations, small wins & open questions:

• Recommendation: Millionaires unveiled podcast
  
• Small win: Standing during all meetings experiment (going well so far)
  
• Other content: “Cell C is not an MVNO” article
  
• Open question: What other non-telco businesses should Orange consider?
  

Bankole’s recommendations, small wins & open questions:

• Recommendation: Hey Email
  
• Small win: Spent the weekend visiting White Salmon, Washington
  
• Other content: Minitel, the open network before the Internet - The Atlantic
  
• Other content: Signal v Noise - Blog by the founders of Basecamp
  
• Open question: What other companies that are dominant in North Africa or French West Africa should more people be aware of?
  

We’d love to hear from you. If you have feedback, topics you’d like to hear, or just want to say hello, please email [e-mail]

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