Elon Musk's Starlink faces hurdles amid Africa expansion push
Elon Musk received millions of dollars in aid from Africa, and his company, Starlink, is seeking licences to provide satellite internet, including to his native South Africa and Lesotho. The US president, Donald Trump, recently disparaged these nations.
In Africa, within two years, Elon Musk managed to persuade 17 countries to utilise satellite internet, including Botswana, Eswatini, Mozambique, Kenya, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe, according to data published on the Starlink website.
Musk fights for contracts in Africa
This year, Liberia was another African country within Musk's satellite network reach. Almost at the same time as Abdullah Kamara, head of Liberia's telecommunications authority, signed an agreement with Musk for internet supply, President Trump mockingly criticised American funding for "social cohesion" projects in Liberia, calling them "scams."
Although Liberia, due to embezzlement of millions of dollars, is not the best example of rational spending of funds from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the programme mocked by Trump aimed to bridge ethnic differences in a deeply divided country. These differences led to two civil wars 25 years ago, in which about 250,000 people died.
Also, in Lesotho, which the American president recently derided by saying, "Nobody has heard of" this country, Musk is seeking a ten-year licence for his company.
In Nigeria, the first country in Africa to sign an agreement with Musk in 2023, and impacted by reduced American aid, Starlink has faced serious challenges. Last year, without any consultation, the company raised the price of its services by 100 percent. Following this price increase, internet access in Nigeria became costlier than in most European countries, with a current price of approximately £37. It is even more expensive in impoverished Eswatini, where the monthly subscription exceeds £41.
In Liberia, one of the world's poorest countries, it is not significantly cheaper. The monthly cost for Starlink's service is approximately £33. This cost does not include the expenses for buying diesel, which is necessary to operate the power generator; without it, the internet is rendered useless.
Starlink criticised
In Africa, Starlink faces backlash from local telecommunications companies that accuse it of failing to invest in local jobs and infrastructure. Furthermore, Namibian authorities last November ordered Musk's company to depart due to its provision of internet services without a valid licence.
Trump's advisor in Musk's native South Africa encounters the most significant obstacles to signing a contract. His efforts are hampered by the "Black Economic Empowerment" regulation, which aims to strengthen the economic position of black individuals. The government requires Starlink to allocate at least 30 percent of the shares to shareholders from "historically disadvantaged groups," meaning the continent's indigenous people.
Additionally, both Trump and Musk have accused the authorities in Pretoria of "genocide against white citizens", to whom the American president offered asylum in the United States. This offer did not help negotiations to include South Africa in Starlink's coverage.
