ICT company SEACOM that is headquarters in Mauritius has announced the acquisition of the assets of Africell Uganda Limited that last year exited the Ugandan market.
The company announced on Thursday that having earlier acquired Kenyan service provider Hirani Telecom’s metropolitan fibre network, they are looking at expanding further its footprint in the East African region by acquiring Africell assets.
“East Africa has been an important market for Seacom ever since we first arrived on the shores of Mombasa in 2009. By officially establishing ourselves in Uganda through proprietary facilities and resources, we are prioritising widespread connectivity and opening up opportunities to work with businesses in search of quality Internet services,” said SEACOM East and North-East Africa Managing Director and regional head of sales Tejpal Bedi.
SEACOM has been in Uganda since its inception in 2009 and has been providing wholesale solutions since then whereas the company has also provided corporate ICT solutions since 2018.
The company also says it has a large footprint in Uganda’s financial services sector and works with government and NGOs including those in education, technology and hospitality sectors.
Tejpal however explained that through the takeover of Africell assets in Uganda, Seacom will take over a comprehensive portfolio of infrastructure essential for connecting enterprise customers, including 760 km of fibre within the Ugandan capital city of Kampala and surrounding towns, a 250 m2 data centre and office space for its representatives and staff members.
SEACOM East and North-East Africa Managing Director added that while Uganda is dominated by small businesses, it is home to a thriving private sector with thousands of medium to large-sized businesses located primarily across Kampala and the central region.
“There is also a growing Internet penetration rate with competitive connectivity prices compared with other countries in the region,” he said.
He noted that the further expansion into East Africa and the acquisition of established infrastructure will enable Seacom to provide seamless integration of its services for clients across Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania.
It will also decrease the reliance on third-party last-mile providers to deliver connectivity solutions, including wireless and fibre Internet access and cloud connectivity, as well as hosting facilities, such as email, and security, such as distributed denial of service protection software.
“Seacom is responding to the needs of the market. Customers are starting to buy more bandwidth. Businesses are making use of the cloud like never before, using enterprise resource planning, office 365 and customer relationship management solutions that serve not just to fill gaps, but aid in driving digital transformation and strengthening internal and external capabilities.”
