00:00you know over time and when i say over time i'm talking three to five years out
00:05you know would like a stronger presence in places like east africa there's several large
00:13east african markets where we're not there but would only consider those options if we
00:18felt that we could make a difference and be able to generate value for our shareholders we won't
00:24be flag planting so to speak by entering markets would only look at markets that would be additive
00:31and transformational to the portfolio but that's with a three to five year view nothing immediate
00:37on the horizon uh just yet so we couldn't potentially see mtn then moving into let's say
00:45ethiopia which is reportedly looking of course to add a third license for telecom providers that's
00:51not something at least in the near term that that the company is looking to do
00:56in the near term we're very focused on uh the ihs transaction which announced uh in february i think
01:01we announced on the 20th of february that uh we'd made an offer uh to acquire the outstanding shares
01:08that we don't hold of ihs um and uh that's a priority for us this year so um that's where
01:15we're putting all our firepower and capacity uh is to work through the processes towards getting
01:21the approval um that's where our inorganic uh focus is uh is to try and close the ihs transaction
01:29uh ralph you've also talked though about uh the ambitions for ai growth for the company
01:36um does east africa factor into that potential plan
01:42yeah if you if you're thinking about um data centers let's talk about data centers specifically
01:48um is um you go to where you know reliable energy sources are and where the the workloads of the
01:55data workloads that you believe believe will come through so overall um you know um east africa will
02:02factor to be clear um we already have a presence in kenya with our bail band fiber business we're
02:08looking to build east to west um links for resilience and capacity um so east africa is a natural place
02:15for kind of digital infrastructure going forward
02:20are there any active deals though that we should be expecting considering some of the discussions that
02:25you've been having with us and european uh investors about the potential here for ai growth on the
02:31continent the things we're thinking about uh with air i mean for us it's a it's a foundational
02:39uh transformational technology to be clear but we're also at the you know beginning stages in many
02:45of the markets if not maybe even globally for telecom operators i think the things that are of interest
02:50to us are things such as ai in the radio access network ai in in ran um that is of
02:58interest to us
02:59because obviously um radio access network is a key part of what we invest in and the thoughts
03:06and ideas around ai in the ran uh become you know quite powerful and could be meaningful
03:12growth and efficiency opportunities for us um edge um edge solutions that are leveraging ai
03:20uh you know going forward um so yes there is a a a cluster of opportunities that are exercising
03:27our minds we want to be there um at uh at at the table where these uh new technologies are
03:35being
03:35embedded uh into uh you know parts of our network um that that is certainly an area of interest right
03:42now for us
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