Pan-African telecoms group Liquid Telecom is investing 8 billion Egyptian Pounds (US$400million) (€349.2 million) in Egypt over the next three years. This is part of a major partnership with Telecom Egypt which includes network infrastructure and data centres.
The investment was made during a signing ceremony between the two companies at the Africa 2018 Forum. This historical agreement was signed by Ahmed El Beheiry, managing director and chief executive officer of Telecom Egypt, and Strive Masiyiwa – group executive chairman of Liquid Telecom’s parent company Econet.
Telecom Egypt will use the network to connect Egyptian businesses to the rest of Africa, whilst also partnering with Liquid Telecom to build data centres across Egypt. Following an initial investment of $50m (€43.6m) in data centres and cloud services, Liquid Telecom plans to invest an additional $350m (€305.5m) in broadband and financial inclusion initiatives, as well as high capacity data centres. These will be similar to some of the best-in-class data centres in South Africa.
The $400 million (€349.2 million) investment will enable Liquid Telecom to significantly expand its position as a connectivity and cloud solutions provider in North Africa, serving businesses in the region with world-class network and data centre services. Through its data centre offering, Africa Data Centres (ADC), Liquid Telecom is facilitating the growth of Africa’s Cloud by providing a platform for cloud services to be delivered locally in many markets for the first time.
According to the group executive chairman of Liquid Telecom’s parent company Econet, Mr Strive Masiyiwa, the next mission is to complete a link between Cairo and Dakar Senegal through Sudan, Chad, and Nigeria, as well as the rest of West Africa.
“We have already crossed Africa from East to West through Sudan and Chad. We are at the Nigerian border and we expect to reach Abuja by the end of January in time for the AU Summit. We want to reach Dakar before president El-Sisi finishes his term,” he said.
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