- SEACOM will acquire selected infrastructure assets from Africell Uganda, which are essential for connecting enterprise customers searching for Internet services
- By taking established infrastructure from the company, SEACOM said it could expand further into East Africa and seamlessly integrate its services for clients across Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania
- The deal will also help the company reduce its reliance on third-party last-mile providers to deliver connectivity solutions
- The expansion follows SEACOM’s recent acquisition of Kenyan service provider Hirani Telecom’s metro fibre network.
SEACOM will acquire selected infrastructure assets from Africell Uganda, which are essential for connecting enterprise customers searching for Internet services.
By taking established infrastructure from the Ugandan company, SEACOM said it could expand further into East Africa and seamlessly integrate its services for clients across Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania.
The deal will also help the company reduce its reliance on third-party last-mile providers to deliver connectivity solutions. These include wireless and fibre Internet access, cloud connectivity, and hosting facilities, such as email and security, such as distributed denial of service (DDoS) protection software.
The deal includes 760 kilometres of fibre within the Ugandan capital city of Kampala and surrounding towns, a 250 square metre data centre, and office space for SEACOM representatives and staff members.
Tejpal Bedi, MD of Sales for SEACOM ENEA, said the acquisition goes hand in hand with the company’s five-year strategy of expanding operations in the region.
“East Africa has been an important market for SEACOM ever since we first arrived on the shores of Mombasa in 2009,” Bedi said.
The company established its services in Uganda in 2009, providing wholesale solutions to Uganda. It entered the corporate solutions market in 2018.
SEACOM said it works with government and non-governmental organisations, including education, technology and hospitality sectors.
Although dominated by small businesses, the company noted that Uganda is home to a thriving private sector, with thousands of medium to large-sized businesses located primarily across Kampala and the central region.
It also noted that there is also a growing internet penetration rate with competitive connectivity prices compared to other countries in the region.
Bedi said the company was responding to the market’s needs, adding that customers are buying more bandwidth.
“Businesses are making use of the cloud-like never before, using enterprise resource planning, Office 365, and customer relationship management (CRM) solutions. These serve not just to fill gaps, but aid in driving digital transformation and strengthening internal and external capabilities,” he said.
“Internet’s growth in the region follows the demands of these businesses. The result is lower prices, improved reactions, and an overall better experience for our customers,” he added.
The expansion follows SEACOM’s recent acquisition of Kenyan service provider Hirani Telecom’s metro fibre network.
U.S lends Africell $100 million to expand operations in Uganda
Liquid Intelligent working with IFC
In a separate story, IFC recently partnered with Liquid Intelligent Technologies to expand data centre capacity and the rollout of fibre-optic cable in Africa.
According to the partners, the deal’s aim was t support universal and affordable broadband access in Africa.
The partnership would also increase digital connectivity and inclusion in Africa and support the region’s growing digital ecosystem.
IFC’s equity and debt investments in Liquid Intelligent Technologies, which total approximately $250 million, will support the company to grow its hyper-scale data centre capacity in Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa through its subsidiary, Africa Data Centres.
The partners said the investments would also support Liquid Intelligent Technologies in the continued rollout of its fibre broadband network, which covers over 100,000 kilometres of sub-Saharan Africa.
The continued build-out of its network will help connect businesses and individuals to the Internet across the continent and position Liquid intelligent Technologies to be at the forefront of Africa’s digital transformation with complementary digital services.
“We are very pleased that IFC continues to support Liquid. The investments in our data centres and fibre broadband network will directly support our growth plans over the coming years,” said Strive Masiyiwa, Liquid Intelligent Technologies Executive Chairman and Founder.