MWC

African Tower Infrastructure Faces Fourfold Data Surge by 2030

Helios Towers calls Africa the world's top tower growth market.

Akul Saxena, Drew Clark

Mar 6, 2026 — 2 min read

Photo of, from left, Monica Paolini, Senza Fill (moderator), Nemanja Vucevic, McKinsey, Ingrid Sofie Ovrum Som, Shapemaker, and Manhit Dhillon, Helios Towers, at Mobile World Congress on Thursday, March 5, 2026

BARCELONA, March 6, 2026 – Tower infrastructure companies operating across Africa face a quadrupling of data consumption by 2030, requiring significant new investment in sites that often lack reliable power, roads, and grid connectivity, a telecom infrastructure executive said on Thursday at Mobile World Congress here in Barcelona.

Manjit Dhillon, group chief financial officer of Helios Towers, the London-based tower infrastructure company operating across Africa and the Middle East, said the Democratic Republic of Congo illustrates the scale of the challenge. The country is 10 times the size of the United Kingdom but has 1 percent of its tarmac road coverage, making site construction and maintenance among the most logistically complex operations in the industry, he said.

Power remains the most critical infrastructure constraint, Dhillon said. Large portions of Helios Towers' markets lack reliable grid connectivity, forcing reliance on diesel generators that require repeated site visits to refuel.

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MWC Africa MWC2026 Helios Towers Manjit Dhillon Barcelona Middle East Democratic Republic of Congo United Kingdom Ingrid Sofie Øvrum Sem Shapemaker Nemanja Vucevic McKinsey

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