Africa’s largest fibre cable company, Liquid Telecom, has received $180 million cash investment from UK development finance institution, Commonwealth Development Corporation (CDC) Group to help expand its broadband infrastructure across the continent.
LATEST | Liquid Telecom in R2.6-billion funding boost https://t.co/Eyarm35yW6 pic.twitter.com/Pgd5KnDUHy
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The funding will enable Liquid expand its fibre network in five new countries including Nigeria and Ethiopia. This is in addition to the 13 countries it already serves with fast network connection – from Cape Town, through all the Southern, Central, and Eastern African countries, and has now reached Sudan and Egypt.
The expansion is also expected to go a long way in providing affordable and reliable broadband connection across African markets that are far behind as far as Internet connectivity is concerned. This will in turn boost the continent’s thriving tech start-up ecosystem with high-speed internet and efficient cloud-based services.
“Our vision is to give every individual on the African continent the right to be connected by bringing reliable, high-speed broadband connectivity and cloud services to all. This includes businesses and communities in some of the most remote parts of the continent,” said Nic Rudnick, Group CEO, Liquid Telecom.
UK development arm CDC takes 10% stake in pan African connectivity wholesaler Liquid Telecom at $180 million. It gives the company an implied equity value of around $1.8bn. https://t.co/zWzZoh1dzr via @financialtimes
— Abu Saeed Khan (@ask1681) December 11, 2018
The investment would also see CDC take a stake of almost 10% in the fibre and cloud provider, which is majorly owned by Mauritius-based Econet Global.
“Digital infrastructure is still a major problem for Africa’s governments, people and its businesses,” says Nick O’Donohoe, CEO, CDC Group Plc. “So improving access to affordable and quality internet is central to Africa’s development and economic growth. Our investment in Liquid Telecom – which is one of CDC’s biggest ever investments – plays an important part in addressing infrastructure bottlenecks and helps bring about the innovation and efficiency gains that result from better internet access.”
Currently, Liquid Telecom has about 70 000 kilometres (43 500 miles) of independent fibre network running from Cape Town to Cairo.
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