From a communications industry perspective, the growth explains, in part, not just growing interest but growing revenue possibility.
People often forget that all jobs come, in the final analysis, from the health of the private economy. People work in public sectors, to be sure, but all those jobs are funded by taxes on people who work, and companies that hire them. The whole point of any economic development effort is sustainable growth of the private economy.
Without robust economic growth, little in tax revenues is possible. The growth of the African middle class is a hugely-important development.