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Best Broadband Provider for Small Businesses UK (2026): Love Business Group Recognised for Helping SMEs Compare Business Broadband Options by Expert Consumers

NEW YORK, Oct. 25, 2026 -- Expert Consumers has recognised Love Business Group for helping small and medium-sized UK businesses compare broadband options based on location, connectivity requirements and day-to-day operational needs. For companies searching for the best...

Oct 25 · 10:00PR Newswire
AI · SaaS

Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo: A Data Centre Comparison for Asian Site Selection

HONG KONG, Oct 25, 2026 - A regional headquarters needs a lease, a few racks, a legal entity, and people who can answer a regulator in English. A large training cluster needs a substation, a long-term power contract, water for cooling, and a construction workforce that will still be on site years after the ribbon cutting. Both get filed under "choosing a data centre market", and the same three cities appear on both shortlists. The criteria behind them barely overlap. Start with the workload, not the city That is why this comparison is organised around workloads instead of a league table. Hong Kong, Singapore and Tokyo each win on at least one axis and lose on at least one, and the axes do not carry equal weight for every tenant. A bank placing a matching engine cares about a 30 ms round trip to the next exchange. A hyperscaler cares whether a large load can be energised before the depreciation schedule eats the business case. Those two buyers should not read the same table the same way. The three cities are on the shortlist for different reasons, and it helps to say which. Hong Kong is a financial centre with a cable history. Singapore is a Southeast Asian gateway whose government rations power. Tokyo is a domestic market large enough to justify its own supply chain. A tenant that treats them as interchangeable will pick the cheapest lease and spend three years discovering why the choice was wrong. Six variables follow, each defined, sourced, and then read against the tenants it governs: cross-border latency and cable landings, industrial electricity price, rentable capacity and pipeline, licensing and ownership, technical talent, and the time needed to bring land and power online. The order runs from the questions that eliminate cities fastest to the ones that only break ties. Six variables, and why these six Each variable passes a simple test. It changes the answer for at least one plausible tenant, and it can be measured without asking a broker for a favour. Latency and cable landings decide whether a workload can be split across markets at all. Industrial electricity price is the largest controllable operating cost in a dense hall. Rentable capacity and pipeline decide whether a lease starts this year or in three. Licensing and ownership decide who may hold the asset. Talent decides whether the site can be staffed after the opening. Land and power timelines decide whether the project exists. Three candidates were dropped. Rack rents went first, because the three markets quote different products: Hong Kong space is commonly priced per square foot of raised floor, Singapore and Tokyo wholesale deals per kW, and neither basis converts cleanly without a density assumption the landlord will not warrant. Land cost per acre went next, because the figures I could reach sit behind subscription walls. Exchange-level latency went last, because venue latency depends on where a cage sits inside the building, which is a negotiation rather than a market statistic. What remains is narrow on purpose. It will not tell you which city has the better data centre industry. It will tell you which variable is likely to decide your project, and which city that variable points to. One methodological note before the numbers. Where two credible sources measure the same thing differently, I have kept both and said so instead of averaging them into a figure that belongs to neither. Singapore is the clearest case: the economic development board counts 1.4 GW of computing capacity across more than 70 facilities, while Cushman & Wakefield counts 1,068 MW across 51. The gap is scope, and scope matters more than the midpoint. Connectivity: the triangle is not equilateral The three cities sit on one trunk. The Southeast Asia–Japan Cable 2 runs 10,500 km and connects 11 landing stations, with its main trunk linking Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan; the system was designed for 144 Tbps and entered service on 16 July 2025. All three markets can therefore reach each other on capacity from the same build, which removes the old argument that one city is structurally cut off from another. The geometry still favours Hong Kong. Measured round-trip times between the three metros put Hong Kong 30.18 ms from Singapore and 62.17 ms from Tokyo, while Tokyo and Singapore sit 66.84 ms apart. Hong Kong is the hinge of the triangle and Tokyo is the far corner. For anything that must touch two of the three markets in sequence, that difference compounds with every request. Cable depth tells a different story. Hong Kong hosts 11 of the 14 intra-Asian submarine cables, according to Digital Realty. Singapore's advantage is breadth of networks rather than cable count: 742 distinct networks have a presence in the metro, against 583 in Hong Kong and 533 in Tokyo, on PeeringDB data. Tokyo's lower count is partly an artefact of how Japanese carriers peer and partly real. Read together, the connectivity picture splits three ways. Hong Kong is the lowest-latency place to sit if your traffic crosses the Pearl River Delta or shuttles between North and Southeast Asia. Singapore is the better place to buy transit, because more networks are already in the building. Tokyo is the right answer when the traffic is domestic Japanese or headed east across the Pacific, and a costly detour when it is not. Market Networks present RTT to Hong Kong RTT to Singapore RTT to Tokyo Hong Kong 583 — 30.18 ms 62.17 ms Singapore 742 30.18 ms — 66.84 ms Tokyo 533 62.17 ms 66.84 ms —   Latency measured 25 October 2026 by WonderNetwork. Network counts from PeeringDB, October 2026. Power: the ranking flips when the tariff class changes Electricity is where a comparison most easily goes wrong, because "the industrial price" is not one number. Two credible series produce two different orderings of the same three cities, and both are defensible. Start with country-average business retail prices collected in March 2026. On that basis Hong Kong is cheapest at US$0.169 per kWh, Japan is second at US$0.179, and Singapore is dearest at US$0.212. A mid-sized enterprise buying a few megawatts would look at that table and put Hong Kong first. Now switch to large-load industrial tariffs, the product a data centre actually buys. Tokyo's special high-voltage average came to 19.40 yen per kWh across January to July 2026, or US$0.119. Hong Kong's all-customer average net tariff was HK$1.406 per kWh from January 2026, or US$0.179. Singapore's high-tension large tariff, weighted for a flat 24-hour load, came to SGD 0.2490 per kWh, or US$0.192. Japan moves from second to first, Hong Kong stays in the middle, and Singapore stays last by a wider margin. The reversal is not a data error. Hong Kong's published figure is an average across all customer classes, which flatters a large user. Japan's is the actual special high-voltage product. Singapore's includes a contracted capacity charge that a 24-hour load absorbs but a peaky load does not, so a tenant running batch training around the clock faces a different bill from a tenant running a trading floor for part of the day. Market structure explains part of the gap. Hong Kong sets tariffs under a scheme of control agreed with the government, which is why the published number is an average across customers rather than a menu. Singapore publishes a quarterly regulated tariff alongside a competitive wholesale market, so the same building can buy at two different prices depending on contract length. Japan's retail market is deregulated, and special high-voltage is a reporting category covering all retailers rather than a single offer. A tenant comparing headline numbers is comparing regulatory artefacts as much as fuel costs. There is a second power variable that does not appear in the tariff: how much of it is low-carbon. Japan generated 23.56% of its electricity from renewables in 2025, Singapore 5.49%, and Hong Kong 1.04%, on Ember data. For a tenant with a corporate renewable target, that gap is a procurement problem in Singapore and a reporting problem in Hong Kong. Demand is moving in one direction. CLP reported that its data centre electricity sales in Hong Kong grew 7.5% in 2025, driven by AI and digital services. Growth of that order against a fixed generation fleet is how a price advantage disappears. Capacity: what you can rent, and how fast Installed capacity is the least interesting number in this comparison, because none of the three markets is short of buildings. What matters is what is empty, what is under construction, and how quickly the empty space is absorbed. Hong Kong has 592 MW in service across 49 facilities and a vacancy rate of 15.6%, with 185 MW under construction. That is the softest market of the three by a wide margin, and the only one where a tenant with a near-term requirement can plausibly negotiate rather than queue. Vacancy and demand can coexist: in September 2026 Grand Ming agreed to sell two Fanling data centres for up to HK$2.445 billion, about US$312 million, with Amazon identified as the buyer. That is a platform purchase rather than a bet on empty space. Singapore has 1,068 MW across 51 facilities, a vacancy rate of 4.8%, and just 25 MW under construction. The pipeline equals about half a year of current take-up. New capacity arrives through a government allocation process rather than the open market: at least 300 MW was offered under the 2024 green data centre roadmap, and a second call for applications launched in December 2025 for at least 200 MW more, with additional power possible for proposals that bring new green energy pathways. Tokyo is the largest market at 1,397 MW across 123 facilities, with 4.4% vacancy and 220 MW under construction. It is also the fastest absorber: 223 MW of take-up in the first half of 2026 alone, against 30 MW in Hong Kong and 25 MW in Singapore. Pre-letting is normal. Colt's Inzai 4 was fully pre-let when it launched, with 4.8 MW energised, on the way to 20 MW at full build and 70 MW across the Inzai campus. The constraint that binds all three is the grid. Connection waits of more than three years are reported for Tokyo, Singapore and Hong Kong alike, which means the difference between the markets is less about how fast a utility can connect you and more about whether you can secure an allocation, a site, or a pre-let building that already holds the connection. Market Industrial power (US$/kWh) Operational capacity (MW) Vacancy Under construction (MW) Networks present Hong Kong 0.179 592 15.6% 185 583 Singapore 0.192 1,068 4.8% 25 742 Tokyo 0.119 1,397 4.4% 220 533   Capacity, vacancy and pipeline from Cushman & Wakefield APAC H1 2026, compiled by Datacentres.com. Power from CLP, SP Group and the Japanese energy surveillance commission, as compiled in the same source. Construction cost adds a second filter. Turner & Townsend's 2025 index put Singapore at US$14.53 per watt, up 5% year on year, second only to Tokyo and ahead of Silicon Valley; Kuala Lumpur came in at US$11.37 and Shanghai at US$6.12. Hong Kong does not appear in the coverage I could reach, which is itself informative: the market with the most empty space is also the one whose build economics are least publicly documented. Licensing: the gate is rarely the telecom licence All three markets allow a foreign investor to own 100% of a data centre operator. The differences sit in who needs a licence and who needs to notify. Hong Kong licenses facility-based public telecommunications through a unified carrier licence, a single instrument covering fixed and mobile services since August 2008. Running a colocation building does not require one; landing a cable or selling capacity on public circuits does. The investment regime around it is unusually open, with no distinction in law between foreign-controlled and locally controlled companies, and no requirement that directors reside in Hong Kong. Singapore requires a facilities-based operator licence to deploy network infrastructure and sell capacity, and the market has been fully liberalised since 2000, with foreign and domestic firms applying on the same terms. The State Department's investment climate report counted 76 facilities-based operators. A colocation landlord that does not run public transmission sits outside the licence, but any tenant wanting to resell cross-border capacity will need a partner that holds one. Japan is the outlier in ownership terms, though not where a data centre tenant would feel it. The foreign ownership caps that exist apply to NTT at 33.3% and to broadcasters below 20%, not to data centres. What does apply is a prior-notification regime: acquisitions of 10% or more of a company in a designated core industry require filing with the finance ministry and the sector regulator, a step that matters for anyone buying an operating platform rather than building one. Entity setup is quick by regional standards, at about one month for a branch and two for a subsidiary. Administrative speed is not the constraint in any of the three. Hong Kong registers a local company through a single electronic platform, typically on the same day, and a non-Hong Kong company in about two weeks. Japan measures entity setup in one to two months, which is fast for the region. The months that decide a project timeline are spent on land, power and construction approvals, not on the corporate paperwork. The practical gate in all three sits upstream of the licence. In Singapore it is the power allocation. In Hong Kong it is land, since almost every new hall involves a lease modification or a government site. In Tokyo it is the grid connection queue and, increasingly, local consent. Talent: a proxy with a wide error bar There is no comparable public count of liquid-cooling technicians by city, so the usable measure here is a proxy with its limits stated. The IMD World Talent Ranking places Hong Kong 4th, Singapore 7th and Japan 40th out of 69 economies in 2025, scoring investment in education, appeal to foreign talent, and the readiness of the existing pool. That ranking measures economies, not data centres, and it will not tell you whether a specific metro can staff a round-the-clock network operations centre in English. It does capture something a site-selection memo usually misses: the difference between a place where a shift team can be hired in weeks and a place where one has to be imported. For a regional headquarters with a small technical team, Hong Kong and Singapore are close enough that the decision will be settled on cost and lease terms. For a Japanese-language operation serving domestic customers, Tokyo's rank is irrelevant and its local labour market is the only one that counts. Reading the matrix Three readings follow from the tables, and they point in different directions. On latency, Hong Kong wins and Tokyo loses. On industrial power, Tokyo wins and Singapore loses. On available capacity, Hong Kong wins and Singapore loses. On network depth, Singapore wins. On market size and absorption, Tokyo wins. No city is first on more than two of the five, and that distribution is the finding: a comparison that produced a single winner would be hiding the trade the buyer actually has to make. Where the data runs out Four gaps are worth naming, because each one is a place where a confident-looking table would be inventing precision. Rack rents are not comparable across the three markets, for the reasons given earlier. Land cost per acre is published by the major brokers but sits behind subscription walls in every case I could reach. Permit timelines are estimated rather than observed, and the benchmarks behind them predate the current build cycle. Exchange-level latency, as opposed to metro-to-metro latency, is negotiated per cage and not published on a consistent basis. Two smaller gaps matter for specific tenants. Hong Kong's construction cost per watt is missing from the most recent index coverage I could obtain, so the market with the most vacant space cannot be priced on a like-for-like basis against Singapore and Tokyo. And the three markets define installed capacity differently enough that Singapore's total shifts by roughly a third depending on whether captive capacity is counted, which is why the table uses one compiler throughout instead of mixing sources. What would change these conclusions is specific and observable. If Hong Kong's 185 MW under construction is absorbed at anything like Tokyo's rate, its vacancy advantage disappears and the negotiating leverage moves to the landlord. If Singapore's second allocation clears and the awarded capacity is energised, its pipeline constraint eases, though the power price and the green conditions stay. If Tokyo's grid queue shortens, its cost advantage compounds. None of these is a forecast; each is a number to re-check before signing. If you need X, choose Y Latency-sensitive trading or settlement across North and Southeast Asia: Hong Kong. The 30.18 ms round trip to Singapore and 62.17 ms to Tokyo are the best pair in the set, and 11 of the 14 intra-Asian cables land there. A large, near-term block of space with negotiating leverage: Hong Kong. A 15.6% vacancy rate and 185 MW under construction are the only combination in the three markets that gives a tenant a credible alternative to the incumbent landlord. Deep peering and the widest choice of transit partners: Singapore. 742 networks is the largest ecosystem of the three, and it is why Singapore remains the default for cloud on-ramps even at the highest power price. The cheapest energy for a round-the-clock, power-dense load: Tokyo. At US$0.119 per kWh on the special high-voltage tariff, Japan is the only one of the three below twelve cents, and a 23.56% renewable share helps a corporate target as well as a bill. Scale without a government allocation: Tokyo, but only through a pre-let. 220 MW under construction against 223 MW absorbed in a single half-year means the buildings that exist are already spoken for, so the route is a negotiation with an operator rather than an application to a ministry. A regional headquarters with a small technical team and an English-speaking regulator: Singapore or Hong Kong. The talent proxy puts them 7th and 4th against Japan's 40th, and neither licensing regime imposes an ownership condition that would complicate a holding structure. A green-field campus where a renewable power purchase agreement is the binding constraint: Singapore, if you can win an allocation, and nowhere if you cannot. The 200 MW second call is the main route to new capacity, and it is scored on green energy pathways rather than price. Sources Submarine Networks, SJC2 system profile. https://www.submarinenetworks.com/en/systems/intra-asia/sjc2  Digital Realty, Hong Kong data centres. https://www.digitalrealty.co.uk/data-centers/china  WonderNetwork, ping statistics between Hong Kong, Singapore and Tokyo, 25 October 2026. https://wondernetwork.com/pings/Singapore  WonderNetwork, latency from Tokyo to Asian cities. https://wondernetwork.com/pings/Tokyo  WonderNetwork, Tokyo to Singapore. https://wondernetwork.com/pings/Tokyo/Singapore  Datacentres.com, Hong Kong market report. https://www.datacentres.com/markets/hong-kong  Datacentres.com, Singapore market report. https://www.datacentres.com/markets/singapore  Datacentres.com, Tokyo market report. https://www.datacentres.com/markets/tokyo  GlobalPetrolPrices, Hong Kong electricity prices, March 2026. https://www.globalpetrolprices.com/Hong-Kong/electricity_prices/  GlobalPetrolPrices, Singapore electricity prices, March 2026. https://www.globalpetrolprices.com/Singapore/electricity_prices/   This article was prepared by the expert team at Global Infinity, drawing on insights and data provided through its MCP data services.   About Global Infinity Global Infinity is an AI innovation company specializing in MCP data services. Website: https://globalinfinity.hk  Email: support@globalinfinity.hk

Oct 25 · 08:00ACN Newswire
Energy · Telecom

South Sudan’s Solar Buildout Opens New Investment Opportunities Ahead of South Sudan Oil & Power (SSOP) 2026

South Sudan’s push to expand electricity access is creating new opportunities for decentralized solar power, with projects advancing across telecommunications, public infrastructure and community services as the country seeks to address one of Africa’s lowest electrification rates. These opportunities will be in focus at South Sudan Oil & Power (SSOP) 2026, taking place November 24–25 in Juba. The conference will connect government, financiers, project developers and technology providers as South Sudan seeks investment across generation, transmission and decentralized power infrastructure. With electricity access remaining extremely limited and grid infrastructure concentrated around major urban centers, South Sudan is turning to distributed solar systems to provide power to communities and commercial infrastructure. International partners are already supporting this expansion. In September 2026, the United Nations Development Program launched a call for proposals under its Solar Energy and Early Recovery Support for Youth Centers initiative, targeting facilities in Bor, Renk, Malakal, Rumbek and Yambio. The initiative seeks to deploy solar systems while supporting youth-focused services, illustrating the potential for decentralized renewable energy across public and community infrastructure. Wider deployment creates demand for solar equipment, installation, maintenance, logistics and technical services. Solar is also being incorporated into essential infrastructure. In July 2026, Egypt expanded its cooperation with South Sudan through a project involving 28 solar-powered groundwater stations designed to serve more than 84,000 people. The development demonstrates how off-grid solar can support services beyond conventional electricity supply, particularly in areas where grid access remains limited. Private-sector infrastructure is creating another market for distributed renewable power. Telecommunications operator MTN South Sudan has cut diesel fuel costs by 50% by modernizing 500 network sites, including adding hybrid solar setups, under the Communication & Renewable Energy Infrastructure (CREI) initiative. The program has increased population broadband coverage to 85% and raised network availability to 99% over the past two years. Financing is also beginning to support wider deployment. In June 2026, Cygnum Capital and Norfund closed a $90 million debt facility to accelerate CREI rollout across South Sudan, Mali and Central Africa. The multi-country facility will support telecommunications and renewable energy infrastructure, demonstrating the role development and private capital can play in scaling distributed energy models across underserved markets. For South Sudan, expanding electricity access will require investment across multiple technologies and infrastructure models. Grid expansion and larger generation projects will remain important, but decentralized solar provides an additional pathway for powering telecommunications, community facilities, water infrastructure and businesses beyond existing electricity networks. SSOP 2026 will bring these investment requirements into discussions between South Sudanese policymakers, utilities, investors, financiers and technology providers. Returning for its seventh edition under the theme “Resource Renaissance – Energy-Fueled Growth for a New Generation,” the conference will examine opportunities across the country’s oil, gas and power sectors as South Sudan seeks to expand energy access and attract new infrastructure investment. To register for SSOP 2026 in Juba on November 24–25, visit: https://SouthSudanOilPower.com/ Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Energy Capital & Power.

Oct 24 · 15:59APO Group
Finance · AI

Semtech Brings 5G Network Slicing, FIPS 140-3 to IACP 2026

AirLink 5G Solutions Keep First Responders Connected During Peak Network Demand CAMARILLO, Calif., October 24, 2026--Semtech Corporation (Nasdaq: SMTC), a leading provider of high-performance semiconductors powering AI data center networking and intelligent, connected Internet of Things ("IoT") devices

Oct 24 · 12:00Business Wire
Telecom

Visit Düsseldorf adds free Wi-Fi to all four Hop On Hop Off sightseeing buses

A partnership with Vodafone brings LTE and 5G connectivity to Düsseldorf’s electric double-decker tour fleet, helping visitors navigate and share their city experience. KEY TAKEAWAYS Free Wi-Fi is now available on all four Visit Düsseldorf Hop On Hop Off double-decker sightseeing buses. Vodafone provides the service through on-board routers and SIM cards connected to LTE... Read the full news article

Oct 24 · 08:52Travel PR News
Telecom

The Synchronous Optical Network Market Is Projected to Grow Robustly with a 9.7% CAGR

The Business Research Company Synchronous Optical Network Market The Business Research Company’s Synchronous Optical Network Global Market Report 2026 – Market Size, Trends, And Forecast 2026-2035 LONDON, GREATER LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM, October 23, 2026 / EINPresswire.com / -- The synchronous optical network market is witnessing significant expansion as telecommunications infrastructure evolves to meet growing data d

Oct 23 · 18:45EIN Presswire
Telecom

NEQSOL Holding’s Digital Silk Way Project Reaches Major Milestone with Official Launch of Trans-Caspian Cable

AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS, October 23, 2026 / EINPresswire.com / -- The Digital Silk Way project, implemented by NEQSOL Holding to establish a new digital telecommunications corridor between Europe and Asia, has reached a major milestone with the official inauguration of the Trans-Caspian Fiber-Optic Cable, a key component of the project. The official launch ceremony of the Trans-Caspian Fiber-Optic Cable took place wit

Oct 23 · 17:45EIN Presswire
Telecom

The Standalone Fifth-Generation (5G) Network Market Is Projected to Grow at a 56.2% CAGR Through 2030

Standalone Fifth-Generation (5G) Network Market Share The Business Research Company The Business Research Company’s Standalone Fifth-Generation (5G) Network Global Market Report 2026 – Market Size, Trends, And Forecast 2026-2035 LONDON, GREATER LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM, October 23, 2026 / EINPresswire.com / -- The standalone fifth-generation (5G) network market is rapidly evolving, driven by the urgent need for faster

Oct 23 · 15:00EIN Presswire
Finance · Real estate

Becker Transactions Announces Exclusive Representation of JHB Holdings’ Eight-Patent Telecommunications Portfolio

LOS ANGELES, CA, UNITED STATES, October 23, 2026 / EINPresswire.com / -- Becker Transactions announces its exclusive representation of JHB Holdings LLC in connection with the strategic sale or licensing of its historical telecommunications patent portfolio. AT&T-originated communications intellectual property portfolio offers strategic acquisition and licensing opportunities involving mobile messaging, multimedia com

Oct 23 · 09:00EIN Presswire
Energy · Telecom

Best Business Utility Comparison Service UK (2026): Love Business Recognised for Helping SMEs Compare and Switch Suppliers by Better Business Advice

NEW YORK, Oct. 23, 2026 -- Better Business Advice has named Love Business in its 2026 coverage of UK business utility comparison services. The review examines Love Business and its comparison and switching service for business energy, broadband, commercial water, phone lines,...

Oct 23 · 09:00PR Newswire
Finance · Energy

Côte d’Ivoire’s Poro Power Solar Plant Earns International Awards for Pioneering Africa Finance Corporation-Led Project

Côte d’Ivoire's Poro Power solar project has received international recognition for a pioneering investment structure led by Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) (www.AfricaFC.org/), demonstrating how African capital can be mobilised to develop essential infrastructure and accelerate the transition to cleaner energy. The facility is expected to become Côte d’Ivoire's largest solar plant when operational in 2027. The project won ESG Green Bond Deal of the Year for Africa at the recent Infra Global ESG Awards 2026 in London, while AFC received ESG Green Bond Arranger of the Year for Africa. The double honours recognise the innovation behind the Poro Power transaction and AFC's role in structuring and mobilising investment for sustainable infrastructure. Developed by Ivorian entrepreneurs, the 66-megawatt solar plant is under construction in northern Côte d’Ivoire near the city of Korhogo. It is projected to generate approximately 136 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of electricity annually, meeting the needs of more than 100,000 households and benefiting an estimated half a million people. Beyond providing homes, public services and businesses with reliable power, the project will help Côte d’Ivoire towards meeting its target of increasing renewable energy's share of electricity generation to 45% by 2030. The Government of Côte d’Ivoire is enabling projects such as Poro Power through its initiative to encourage local private-sector participation in large-scale renewable energy projects, led by the Ministry of Mines, Petroleum and Energy under Minister Mamadou Sangafowa-Coulibaly. “These awards are a tremendous recognition for an Ivorian project developed to meet the needs of our own communities,” said Jean-Marc Aie, Chairman and CEO of Poro Power 1 S.A. “Our ambition is not simply to generate clean electricity, but to support businesses, create opportunities and contribute to the development of Côte d’Ivoire. The Ministry's strategy to empower local private developers to undertake large-scale renewable energy projects, together with AFC's investment and innovative financing structure, has been instrumental in bringing Poro Power to this stage.”  The €65 million financing package, equivalent to approximately FCFA 42.6 billion, was raised through a green bond — an investment instrument that enables institutions to lend money to projects delivering environmental benefits. It was the first project-finance green bond in both Côte d’Ivoire and the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU), establishing a precedent for French-speaking West Africa, and was led, structured and fully funded by African institutions. The transaction allowed investors to participate in both euros and CFA francs, making it also Côte d’Ivoire's first dual-currency green bond. Together, these features demonstrate how African financial institutions can mobilise their own capital for major infrastructure projects, using financing structures suited to African markets. AFC invested €43 million (approximately FCFA 28.2 billion) in February 2026 and acted as anchor investor, lead underwriter and co-arranger. The equivalent of a further €22 million was raised from African investors, including local and regional banks, pension funds, insurance companies and high-net worth investors. The bond has a 15-year term, a fixed interest rate of 8.75%, and quarterly repayments following a two-year construction grace period. The financing combines the flexibility of a bond with safeguards normally used in project finance, including first-ranking security, dedicated revenue accounts and contractual protections that separate the project's cash flows from other activities. These measures help protect investors and align repayments with the plant's expected revenues. By bringing together AFC's investment alongside capital from other African institutions through a structure that accommodates both local and international currencies, the transaction offers a potential model for financing further renewable energy and infrastructure projects across the region. Its significance extends beyond Poro Power, providing a practical example of African money financing African projects and a structure that could be replicated across the continent. “Poro Power demonstrates that African financial institutions have both the capital and the expertise to finance large-scale renewable energy infrastructure through our own markets,” said Sameh Shenouda, Executive Board Member and Chief Investment Officer of AFC. “By combining the protections required for long-term project finance with the flexibility of capital markets, we have created a structure that can attract a broader range of African investors. This is an important model for mobilising the investment needed to expand reliable electricity supply, support industry and accelerate the energy transition across the region.” Once operational, the plant is projected to avoid approximately 72,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions annually — equivalent to taking around 15,600 petrol-powered cars off the road for a year. The project includes a commitment to allocate €0.01 for every megawatt-hour of electricity generated towards to initiatives intended to benefit local communities. Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Africa Finance Corporation (AFC). Media Enquiries: yewande.thorpe@africafc.org About AFC: Nineteen years on, AFC has developed a track record as the partner of choice in Africa for investing and delivering on instrumental, high-quality infrastructure assets that provide essential services in the core infrastructure sectors of energy, natural resources, heavy industry, transport, and telecommunications. AFC has 48 member countries and has invested over US$19 billion in 36 African countries since its inception. www.AfricaFC.org

Oct 23 · 08:00APO Group
Telecom

Telefónica and IQM to Provide the Community of Madrid With Its First Quantum Computer to Drive the Development of Industry Use Cases Across the Region

The IQM Spark quantum computer, to be located at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, will be the third system deployed in Spain through the collaboration between IQM and Telefónica, positioning the region as a benchmark for digital innovation. MADRID, Spain & ESPOO, Finland, October 23, 2026--Telefó

Oct 23 · 06:30Business Wire