Internet Solutions (IS) has increased its investment in its Kenyan operation, from 51% to 80%, as it looks to expand its East African business interests.
The Dimension Data subsidiary yesterday announced the increased stake, but would not disclose the value of the investment.
It initially acquired a 51% stake in local Kenyan service provider iConnect in 2005, which was rebranded IS Kenya.
“Following unprecedented growth in the East African market, IS and Dimension Data made the decision to increase the group's shareholding to 80%, with an option to acquire the outstanding balance of 20%,” says IS.
Future expansion
Sales director of the unit Loren Bosch has been appointed MD for IS Kenya.
“East Africa is experiencing a boom with the telecommunications sector playing a vital role in fuelling the rapid growth across multiple vertical markets,” says Bosch.
He adds this is largely due to the increased international bandwidth capacity supplied via the numerous undersea cable systems. There is also massive investment being made into fixed-line and wireless infrastructure in the region.
“Kenya forms the hub of the East African operation, as it is strategically well-placed to serve a number of other key countries such as Tanzania and Uganda. We also have plans to roll out into Rwanda and Burundi in the near future, and to enter the southern-Sudan region. This investment will ensure that we have the resources and capabilities to successfully roll out into these key regions and secure sustainable market share.”
Paradigm shift
IS identified Kenya as a key growth market due to the strength of the local economy and the rapidly increasing data demands in the consumer and corporate markets.
“As greater capacity comes online, we are starting to see an increase in the demand for cloud-based services, specifically the delivery of software as a service. To meet this demand, IS has made a substantial investment into upgrading its local data centre.”
Kenya is also seeing a paradigm shift in terms of how service providers provision services, as local infrastructure providers have historically built out their own infrastructure, according to IS.
“However, due to changing global economic conditions and the subsequent need to reduce large-scale capital expenditure and operating costs, providers are electing to follow the growing trend of outsourcing their infrastructure needs. This has opened up the market by creating a provider-agnostic environment where a good mix of technologies can be delivered,” says Bosch.
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