The Liquid Telecom Groups has raised $150 million loan facility from Standard Chartered and large global investment banks to fund the expansion of its fibre network in Africa.
In more than five years, the company has been building what is now Africa’s largest independent cross-border fibre network which runs across 15 nations in East and Central Africa covering Africa’s fast-growing economies where no fixed network has existed before and connecting to all the subsea cables.
The network currently spans over 18,000km and includes fibre rings around a multitude of towns and cities and The East Africa Fibre Ring, the first fully redundant regional fibre ring in East Africa.
The new investment will be used to extend Liquid Telecom’s fibre network into additional countries as part of the company’s continuous expansion strategy. It will also finance ongoing Fibre To The Home (FTTH) builds in Kenya, Rwanda, Zambia and Zimbabwe which will provide homes and businesses with unlimited data packages and 100Mbps, the fastest broadband ever available in Africa.
Liquid Telecom’s customers include other wholesale carriers, mobile network operators, ISPs, financial institutions and businesses of all sizes and homes. It also operates retail businesses in Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and Zimbabwe.
Nic Rudnick, CEO of the Liquid Telecom Group said: “We believe in the power of connectivity to transform lives and our goal is to connect as many people in Africa as possible. Our fibre networks provide capacity for high-speed fixed and mobile broadband networks, enabling Africans to access digital content, apps and OTT services. This funding will help us in our mission of building Africa’s digital future.”
