The fibre link between Kenya and Ethiopia spans over 1,000km and will provide businesses in Ethiopia with access to data centres and cloud services in Nairobi. This ensures that data remains within the continent. Additionally, the 711 km cross-border link between Zambia and Malawi offers a direct and reliable connection to content caches and data centres in South Africa.
These strategic initiatives by Liquid are expected to significantly contribute to the digital transformation journey of these regions by providing reliable and efficient connectivity solutions.
“Kenyan and Ethiopian businesses are rapidly adopting digital technologies, and this new link will enable trade and investment between these two great nations in our region," says Adil El Youssefi- CEO Rest of Africa at Liquid Intelligent Technologies.
"For Liquid Kenya, we see this growing demand being catalysed by the Kenya Kwanza Government’s Digital Superhighway Initiative and this 1,000km of newly lit fibre is our first contribution to the private sector investment into this flagship project.”
In partnership with the Kenya Electricity Transmission Company (KETRACO) and Ethiopia Electric Power (EEP), Liquid’s new link connects Nairobi and Mega, a town in southern Ethiopia, and provides a capacity of 4Tbps. Complementing the existing terrestrial routes across this border, the Kenya-Ethiopia route will now have carrier-grade connectivity, which serves to rapidly expand data traffic on this important route.
“All initiatives undertaken by businesses under Cassava Technologies (Liquid's parent company) work towards realising our vision of a digitally connected future that leaves no African behind. The completion of these fibre links is yet another milestone achieved by Liquid as it continues to lay the foundations of economic growth through increased access to high-speed connectivity,” says Hardy Pemhiwa, president and group CEO of Cassava Technologies.
The fibre network will provide Kenya and Ethiopia with measurable benefits in terms of connectivity performance and accessibility as it connects the underserved towns of Suswa, Sereolipi, Ndaragwa and Marsabit, as well as Nairobi and Mega.
