BCA Targets Africa’s Media Infrastructure Gap with Mauritius Hub

Bennett Oghifo

Africa’s growing film, music and television industries are generating increasing demand for professional production and broadcasting services, but a shortage of technical infrastructure is forcing media companies to outsource critical operations to Europe and the Middle East, limiting the continent’s ability to retain the economic value of its creative output.

Broadcasting Center Africa is seeking to address the gap through a media infrastructure hub in Mauritius, bringing together television studios, post-production facilities, broadcasting operations, engineering services and a secure data centre to serve African and international media organisations.

The proposed facility, expected to open in 2029, will form the technical core of MediaCity Mauritius, a wider development designed to accommodate production companies, broadcasters, technology firms, academic institutions, training centres, start-ups and international investors.

Chief Executive Officer of BCA and MediaCity Mauritius, Najib Gouiaa, disclosed this in an interview at the 2026 Creative Africa Nexus Weekend, CANEX WKND, organised by the African Export-Import Bank in Lagos from November 5 to 8.

BCA shared a stand at the event with its European partner, Broadcasting Center Europe, and MediaCity Mauritius to present the project to producers, broadcasters, streaming platforms, telecommunications operators, investors and other participants in Africa’s creative industries.

Gouiaa said the continent had the creative talent, audiences and international demand to support a thriving media industry, but lacked the technical infrastructure required to turn creative productions into sustainable businesses.

He argued that the problem was not a shortage of creative capacity but the absence of an integrated production and distribution ecosystem, leaving companies to depend on foreign facilities for several stages of their operations.

“The talent is there, and so are the audiences and the demand. What’s missing is the technical chain that turns creative work into a lasting business. African creative projects do not fail because of a lack of talent but because the support around them doesn’t exist. People work in isolation, skills are scattered, and at every stage some of the value leaves the continent,” he said.

According to him, the economic value lost goes beyond the cost of outsourcing production services, extending to employment, technical expertise, professional development and commercial opportunities associated with the media value chain.

He explained that a production shot in Africa could still depend on facilities in Europe for editing and post-production, while the television channel transmitting it might be operated from Dubai. Its archives could be stored in Europe, with the supporting data hosted outside the continent.

“Those are the stages where the margins, the jobs and the careers are, and they’re being exported just as demand for African capacity is taking off,” Gouiaa said.

He added that international media groups with Africa-focused operations also tended to locate their departments in Dubai, London or Paris rather than on the continent because of concerns about infrastructure reliability, operational risks and the availability of personnel trained to international standards.

He said the appetite for establishing more operations in Africa existed, but companies needed assurances that they could access reliable facilities, manage risks and recruit appropriately trained teams.

According to him, bringing those operations closer to the African markets they serve would be in the commercial interest of international media groups, provided the necessary infrastructure and operational guarantees were available.

Gouiaa said BCA’s approach was informed by media infrastructure models in international markets, particularly Dubai Media City, MediaCityUK and RTL City in Luxembourg, where production companies, broadcasters, technical operators and training institutions operate within integrated developments.

He said the model allowed businesses to share infrastructure, access specialised services and work more closely with other players in the industry rather than operating independently.

“The places that succeed are the ones that put everything on one site. A studio with no post-production, a broadcast centre with no producers nearby, a media school with no equipment to train on: each of these struggles on its own. Put them together and they feed each other,” he said.

Under the proposed arrangement, BCA will provide the technical services supporting media production, broadcasting, content management and distribution, while MediaCity Mauritius will provide the wider business and institutional environment.

The BCA facility will house television studios and their control rooms, facilities for live and recorded production, post-production suites, a master control room, satellite and internet links, engineering laboratories and an auditorium.

It will also have a secure data centre certified to the international ISO 27001 standard, allowing content to be hosted, stored and archived in Africa.

The building is being purpose-built by MediaCity Mauritius to specifications developed with BCE and is scheduled to open in 2029.

Gouiaa described BCA as a one-stop technical service centre for African and international media and creative companies, handling operations from production to final delivery.

He said the company would operate to the standards of major European media groups, providing clients with access to technical capacity without requiring them to acquire and maintain all the necessary equipment themselves.

Explaining the company’s business model, he said media organisations would purchase operational capacity under service agreements with guaranteed service levels rather than invest heavily in infrastructure, equipment and technical personnel.

“Because our clients don’t buy equipment. They buy capacity, under a contract with guaranteed service levels, backed by teams working around the clock and equipment we maintain and replace. That turns a heavy upfront investment into a predictable running cost,” he said.

He said the arrangement would enable clients to launch television channels within six months instead of 18 months, maintain broadcasting operations through managed backup systems and expand into new markets, languages and platforms without building new infrastructure from scratch.

Gouiaa said the model reflected the approach adopted by major European media service providers, which had increasingly moved complex technical operations to specialist service centres.

He identified six categories of potential customers for BCA, including international television channels, African public and private broadcasters, telecommunications and mobile operators, sports rights holders, content producers and advertising agencies, as well as international media groups seeking an operational base in Africa.

For international channels seeking to establish an Africa-ready feed without recruiting a local operations team, BCA plans to provide a 180-day channel launch kit.

African broadcasters needing to keep their channels on air while modernising their operations will have access to managed disaster recovery services.

Telecommunications and mobile operators expanding into video services will be able to use a video operations laboratory, while sports rights holders will have access to a live operations package for converting sporting events into live and near-live content across different platforms.

Producers and advertising agencies will be offered a supply-chain sprint designed to move productions from the production stage to distribution.

International media groups seeking to establish an Africa-facing base will also have access to a market-entry package combining managed services and access to the company’s data centre.

Gouiaa said the increasing complexity of the media industry had made it difficult for individual broadcasters, telecommunications operators and content owners to manage every aspect of their operations internally.

He listed traditional broadcasting, streaming applications, free ad-supported channels, video-on-demand services, targeted advertising, multilingual content versions, rights management, live events and distribution across multiple platforms as activities requiring specialised technical capabilities.

He said organisations also needed to maintain round-the-clock operations while managing the cost of equipment, personnel and infrastructure.

On the growth of Africa’s digital content market, Gouiaa said more than 560 streaming services now operated across the continent, while Afrobeats and Amapiano had helped make African music one of the fastest-growing creative sectors globally.

However, he said 97 per cent of streaming content consumed in Africa was imported, illustrating the disparity between the continent’s growing appetite for digital content and its capacity to produce, finish and distribute it.

He argued that establishing more streaming platforms alone would not address the underlying problem, as the industry needed the technical infrastructure and specialist services required to support content across different distribution channels.

Gouiaa also identified music as one of the most dynamic but least equipped segments of Africa’s creative industry.

He said African artists and record labels had gained international recognition through global streaming platforms but remained constrained by inadequate facilities for recording, filming, editing and managing the rights to their work at broadcast quality.

According to him, concerts, live sessions and festivals require specialised infrastructure to capture performances, mix the recordings, archive the content and convert them into commercial products.

He said BCA intended to support this segment alongside the production companies, event spaces and training campus planned for MediaCity Mauritius.

BCE partnership and skills development

A central part of the project is its partnership with Broadcasting Center Europe, the technical operator of RTL Group, which will provide the technology, operational expertise and training required to establish BCA’s operations.

Gouiaa said BCE had spent 25 years managing critical broadcasting operations, had teams in seven countries and served more than 400 clients, including RTL, Radio France, Arte and France Télévisions.

The European company also has experience in Africa and the Indian Ocean, having moved Ethiopia’s public broadcaster, Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation, into new facilities incorporating studios, a data centre and broadcasting systems. It also carried out the complete modernisation of Antenne Réunion.

He said the partnership would allow BCA to adopt established European broadcasting systems and operational procedures while developing the capacity to serve African markets.

BCA will initially operate from BCE’s facilities at RTL City in Luxembourg for three years before transferring its operations to Mauritius.

Gouiaa said the arrangement was designed to allow the company to establish its business, serve its first customers, train personnel and test its infrastructure on actual productions before the Mauritius hub opens.

Under the plan, the equipment will be transferred to Mauritius, certified teams will follow, and the company expects to have its first clients already on board.

He said the strategy was intended to reduce the delivery risks associated with major infrastructure projects by testing the operational model before the permanent facility was completed.

BCE will provide three main components for the project: technology, operational expertise and professional training.

The technology component will cover the facility’s design, broadcasting and internet protocol systems, as well as equipment selection and procurement based on the standards of a major European operator.

The operational component will involve transferring the expertise required to manage round-the-clock broadcasting, maintain service continuity, respond to technical incidents, control quality and secure content.

Gouiaa said the training component would ensure that BCA’s personnel could operate the systems to BCE’s standards from the beginning.

He said the company planned to train 160 young Africans at BCE’s facilities in Luxembourg, where they would learn using the same equipment expected to be installed in Mauritius.

The engineers, technicians and operators recruited by BCA would gain practical experience working on actual productions and obtain professional certification rather than rely solely on classroom instruction.

Gouiaa said the objective was to have the personnel acquire three years of experience before the Mauritius facility opens, creating a pool of African specialists with international exposure.

He described professionalisation as a cornerstone of the project, arguing that the development of technical skills was essential to building a sustainable media industry on the continent.

BCE will remain involved after the transfer as BCA’s supervisory and support partner under a formal services and strategic partnership agreement.

The agreement includes contractual milestones covering systems integration, staff certification, ISO 27001 certification and the facility’s official opening.

Gouiaa said BCE’s expertise would also remain available on demand for clients requiring specialised design work, specific installations or day-to-day operational support.

MediaCity Mauritius and regional ambitions

Beyond the technical facilities, Gouiaa said the wider MediaCity Mauritius development would bring together content creators, media companies, technology businesses, academic institutions, training centres, start-ups and international investors.

He said locating BCA within the development would provide access to potential customers, shared infrastructure and a workforce trained in the technologies and standards used by the company.

He cited RTL City in Luxembourg as an example of how bringing broadcasting channels, content teams and technical operators together could improve collaboration and reduce the need for intermediaries.

According to him, having studios, control rooms, broadcast centres and newsrooms within the same development would allow businesses to work directly with one another.

He said companies operating within MediaCity Mauritius would become potential customers for BCA, while sharing infrastructure and specialist services would improve efficiency without compromising broadcasting standards.

The development’s academic partners would also help train personnel in the technologies and professional standards required by BCA.

Gouiaa added that events hosted at MediaCity would provide opportunities for the company to demonstrate its capabilities and attract new customers.

He said the development would become more valuable as additional tenants, partners and institutions joined it, strengthening the services available to businesses operating within the ecosystem.

On its customer acquisition strategy, Gouiaa said BCA was already in discussions with potential clients across the streaming, telecommunications, television broadcasting and content production industries.

The company has identified 30 organisations with pressing operational needs, budgets to address those needs and decision-makers it can reach.

He said the plan was to convert the discussions into paid assessments of the organisations’ operations and identify areas where BCA could improve their processes.

Those assessments would then lead to pilot projects, including channel launches, which the company could use as references to attract additional customers.

Gouiaa said BCA was targeting both African and international media organisations.

For African customers, the company would provide access to infrastructure they might not have the financial resources or technical capacity to build and operate independently.

For international companies seeking to produce content in Africa or work with local partners, BCA would offer an entry point into the market without requiring them to assume the full operational risks of establishing their own facilities.

He said the presence of offices, event spaces, business partners and skilled personnel within MediaCity Mauritius would provide additional benefits beyond the technical services available at the broadcasting centre.

Gouiaa said the company was also seeking to attract international media groups that currently managed their Africa-focused operations from outside the continent.

Why Mauritius?

Explaining the choice of Mauritius over other African media and business centres such as Lagos, Nairobi and Johannesburg, Gouiaa said the island offered a combination of political and business stability, international connectivity and multilingual capabilities.

He said Mauritius could serve French-, English- and Portuguese-speaking markets while providing a business environment familiar to international media organisations.

He cited guarantees for foreign ownership, exemptions from duties on technical equipment, production incentives and data protection legislation aligned with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation as factors supporting the choice.

Gouiaa also pointed to Mauritius Telecom’s 2026–2029 strategy, which positions the country as a digital gateway between Africa and Asia through sovereign cloud infrastructure, artificial intelligence and innovation corridors.

He said the MediaCity development would also help build a local pool of operators, editors, metadata specialists and broadcast support personnel.

According to him, the location would enable BCA to serve major business centres including Johannesburg, Nairobi, Paris, Dubai and Mumbai.

He said the project was aligned with the African Continental Free Trade Area’s Protocol on Digital Trade because shared production and distribution infrastructure could make it easier for African content businesses to operate across the continent’s 54 markets.

Gouiaa said Mauritius had signed the agreement and offered strong intellectual property protection, making it a suitable base for a business seeking to support cross-border content production and distribution.

He described BCA as the type of creative infrastructure investment that CANEX was established to support, arguing that such projects could attract financing while generating measurable returns through exports, industrial development and skills acquisition.

He said Afreximbank had identified infrastructure and skills shortages as major constraints facing Africa’s creative industries, adding that BCA was intended to contribute to addressing those challenges.

Looking beyond Mauritius, Gouiaa said the company’s long-term plan was to establish a model that could be replicated in other African countries from 2030.

He said the expansion would follow the successful establishment of the Mauritius operation, the acquisition of reference clients, the certification of personnel and the testing of operational procedures.

The next phase would involve regional growth and additional services led jointly by BCE and BCA.

However, he said the immediate priority remained establishing the Mauritius hub and demonstrating the viability of the business model.

Gouiaa said the message to African producers, broadcasters and record labels visiting the company’s stand at CANEX was that production and technical services they currently outsourced abroad would soon be available on the continent to the same standards.

He said the services would be delivered by African teams trained at BCE in Luxembourg and operating the same systems that would be installed in Mauritius.

He added that the project would provide a setting where media companies could produce content, train personnel, meet partners and conduct business.

For international media groups, he said BCA was offering the infrastructure, operational guarantees and technical partnership needed to move their Africa-facing operations closer to the markets they serve.

Najib Gouiaa is the initiator and Chief Executive Officer of Broadcasting Center Africa and MediaCity Mauritius. He has three decades of experience in international news and production, including 20 years in international news and a further 10 years working on media projects in the Middle East and Africa. He previously worked as a reporter and producer for international agencies and channels across Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Europe, served as head of news at an Africa-focused channel and consulted on media and creative projects in the Gulf.