Policy Makers, Regulators and Technology Providers need to create a fertile environment for Communication Service Providers and local governments to deliver a service that supports national, regional and local socio-economic growth and the development of Smart Cities. According to the World Bank and ITU, estimated expenditure on ICT in Africa has risen from USD$60-65b in 2005 to USD$155-180b in 2016. This presents a valuable opportunity in service development but access to affordable infrastructure is still one of the major factors affecting the use of ICT in Africa. Africans paying on average, 25% of Gross National Income on mobile cellular calls compared with just 11% in other developing regions. In Africa, only 10% of households have access to internet compared with 82% in Europe with fixed broadband standing at around 0.5% in Africa. A lack of reliable Datacentres and General Infrastructures leads to higher costs for SaaS, Cloud and other on demand services offered by global providers. While these on demand services enable communication service providers to offer high end services without heavy investment, the development of local, robust and reliable infrastructures is the only viable long term solution for governments, regulators and service providers to take control of the affordability, reliability and effectiveness of their services. Smart Cities, Smart Government, Smart Enterprise and other Smart initiatives are key development agendas for driving growth and improving quality of life in Africa and are all dependent on the affordability of the underlying, national ICT infrastructures. C2C 2017 will assess smarter policies, regulations, strategies and business models that contribute greatly to the affordability of infrastructures: Governments play a key role in attracting international investment in national and regional infrastructure, starting with a recognition of the value of such investment. Deputy President of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, at the recently concluded World Economic Forum, said that Investment in Infrastructure had been a key economic driver for South Africa and the wider region with the ‘Presidential Infrastructure Coordinating Commission’ advocating innovative partnerships with the private sector. SMARTER INFRASTRUCTURE CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA • 5 TH -6 TH OCTOBER 2017 CONNECT 2 CONNECT 2017 Smarter Infrastructure is more effi cient, more reliable and more cost effective.