SEACOM Acquires Africell Uganda Assets To Expand Footprint In East Africa

SEACOM, the pan-African telecommunications service provider, has announced it will acquire selected infrastructure assets from Africell in Uganda as it seeks to expand across the East-African region.

In a statement, the company said it will acquire Africells 760 kilometres of fibre within the Ugandan capital city of Kampala and surrounding towns, a 250 square metre data centre, and office space for its representatives and staff members.

“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,” explained Tejpal Bedi, Managing Director and Regional Head of Sales for SEACOM ENEA.

He added: “The acquisition goes hand in hand with our five-year strategy into expanding operations in the region. As such, we are very excited about having a greater local presence.”

The acquisition of established infrastructure will allow for further expansion into East Africa, enabling the company to provide seamless integration of its services for clients across Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania, and decreasing the reliance on third-party last mile providers to deliver connectivity solutions – solutions that include wireless and fibre Internet access, cloud connectivity, as well as hosting facilities, such as email and security, such as distributed denial of service (DDoS) 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 (CRM) solutions that serve not just to fill gaps, but aid in driving digital transformation and strengthening internal and external capabilities. The growth of the Internet in the region follows the demands of these businesses, and it’s up to us to facilitate that. The end result is lower prices, improved reactions, and an overall better experience for our customers,” concluded Tej.

This latest expansion comes on the heels of the company’s recent acquisition of Kenyan service provider Hirani Telecom’s metro fibre network.