The aim is to boost intra-African digital trading and keep data within the continent
Liquid Intelligent Technologies, owned by pan-African tech group Cassava Technologies, has announced two new, fully redundant terrestrial routes. They are between Kenya and Ethiopia, and Zambia and Malawi. Liquid claims this new, reliable regional connectivity will be an economic boost to the countries concerned.
The fibre link between Kenya and Ethiopia is more than 1000km long and offers businesses in Ethiopia access to data centres and cloud in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, keeping data on the African continent. The link is supported by the 711km long, cross-border link between Zambia and Malawi which provides direct connection to content caches and data centres in South Africa.
Powerful partners
Liquid’s link that connects Nairobi and Mega, a town in southern Ethiopia, is in partnership with the Kenya Electricity Transmission Company (KETRACO) and Ethiopia Electric Power (EEP). It provides capacity of 4Tbps and also connects the underserved towns of Suswa, Sereolipi, Ndaragwa and Marsabit.
It complements other extant terrestrial routes and is part of Liquid’s “doubling down” on its investment in Ethiopia. It says the new carrier-grade connectivity will “rapidly expand data traffic on this important route”.
Adil El Youssefi, CEO, Rest of Africa at Liquid Intelligent Technologies, “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.
Complements government policy
For Liquid Kenya, we see this growing demand being catalysed by the Kenya Kwanza Government’s Digital Superhighway Initiative and this 1000 km of newly lit fibre is our first contribution to the private sector investment into this flagship project”.
“All initiatives undertaken by businesses under Cassava Technologies 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,” stated Hardy Pemhiwa, President and Group CEO of Cassava Technologies.