We're on a mission

For more than three years, Simon Everett has proudly supported the work of the US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA). USTDA finances planning activities for infrastructure projects in developing economies. These planning activities — which might involve technical assistance, an innovative technology pilot, or a feasibility study — are performed by experts from US companies. By contributing this technical expertise to the project’s preparations, USTDA positions the project for success and helps unlock investment to enable the project to move forward. As a result, it creates opportunities for US companies to export goods and services to the emerging market by bidding on tenders related to the infrastructure project.

Over the last ten years, every dollar USTDA has programmed has led to $104 in potential exports for US companies — an astounding return on the agency’s investment. Those programmed dollars have funded high-impact activities like a smart city feasibility study for the City of Cape Town; a pilot project to demonstrate how smart metering technology can increase revenue collection for a Nigerian electric utility; and technical assistance to a Brazilian state government making investments in data centers, broadband network expansion. Activities like these lead to successful infrastructure projects in these emerging markets, while concurrently creating opportunities for US companies to provide goods and services to support their implementation.

Under a new two-year contract, Simon Everett will be performing a Definitional Mission (DM) to originate and develop planning activities for USTDA to consider funding. The scope of our DM is the information and communications technology (ICT) sector in three emerging markets in sub-Saharan Africa: South Africa, Nigeria, and Kenya. All across Africa, the digital economy is expanding rapidly — and some of the most exciting initiatives are taking place in these three markets. We’ll be exploring opportunities for US companies to support priority development projects in a wide array of market segments, potentially including broadband and wireless infrastructure; smart cities; data centers and disaster recovery; cybersecurity; fintech; agtech; and medtech.

We look forward to working with USTDA, US ICT companies, and business and government leaders in these markets to design and develop high-impact infrastructure projects that help realize Africa’s digital future and promote US exports abroad.