Liquid Intelligent Technologies, a tech company controlled by Zimbabwean billionaire Strive Masiyiwa, has announced a substantial upgrade to its 1,300-kilometer fiber connection connecting Kenya’s coastal city of Mombasa to Busia on the Ugandan border. This demonstrates Liquid’s commitment to improving East Africa’s digital infrastructure as competition in the region heats up.
The new network is expected to provide 99.99 percent availability between Mombasa and the Ugandan border, strengthening Liquid’s position as a regional leader in digital transformation. This effort will increase high-speed connectivity and service delivery in other East African countries by establishing more efficient and dependable regional networks.
Liquid Telecom has improved its terrestrial and underwater networks, adding protection layers to provide continued service during outages. As Kenya cements its position as a digital center with many underwater cable providers in Mombasa, Liquid’s extended fiber network increases data traffic and strengthens regional digital infrastructure.
The enhanced route can handle multiple terabytes of data, providing scalable capacity to satisfy increasing demand from retail, enterprise, and wholesale customers. It also positions Liquid to assist foreign tech companies entering the African market, hence creating new digital growth potential.
“This expansion aligns with Liquid’s vision of a digitally connected Africa, leaving no one behind,” said Adil El Youssefi, CEO of Liquid Intelligent Technologies for the Rest of Africa. He noted that improved connection is critical for supporting key industries in the region and aligned with Kenya’s national digital transformation goal, which aims to create digital superhighways and optimize government services.
Liquid Intelligent Technologies is a subsidiary of Cassava Technologies, a multinational pan-African technology conglomerate that operates in more than 20 countries, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. The corporation has an enormous 110,000 km fiber internet network, firmly establishing itself as the continent’s foremost provider of digital infrastructure.
Strive Masiyiwa, worth $2 billion, has led Liquid to develop key collaborations, including a collaboration with Globalstar to provide superior 5G connectivity in Africa, the Middle East, and the Gulf.
In 2023, Liquid acquired Cairo-based cloud and cybersecurity startup Cysiv MEA, expanding its operations in the Middle East. In 2022, the business plans to invest approximately R350 million ($19.7 million) in Dataport Across Africa, its first Software Defined Network (SDN) offering in Africa.