Strive Masiyiwa’s Casssava Technologies has pledged to invest R4.5 billion in South Africa through its business units – Liquid Intelligent Technologies, Africa Data Centres and Distributed Power Africa.
The announcement was made at the recently concluded 5th South Africa Investment Conference (SAIC) in support of South Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa’s initiative to drive investment into the country.
Through this investment, Cassava intends to continue bringing internationally recognised services and products to South Africa through the group’s renewable energy, cloud & cyber security, data centres and broadband connectivity business units.
Headquartered in London and with operations in Africa, the Middle East, Europe, the USA and Latin America, the Company provides its customers’ products and services in 94 countries.
“South Africa accounts for the largest proportion of Africa’s industrial GDP with a sophisticated and growing ICT sector. The country’s unique combination of highly developed first-world economic infrastructure and a stable macro-economic environment affords businesses like ours a conducive investment environment in which we can partner with government to drive economic development and create jobs” stated Hardy Pemhiwa, President & Group CEO of Cassava Technologies.
Cassava’s investment pledge comprises key projects, including the expansion of the Liquid Intelligent Technologies fibre network, the extension of Africa Data Centres capacity and footprint, enhanced cloud and cyber security capacity, and the rollout of clean, renewable energy by Distributed Power Africa in South Africa.
South Africa’s USD$ 6.75 billion ICT sector represents one of Africa’s most investment-attractive and growth-bound industries today. The world bank estimates that South Africa’s internet penetration rate has doubled over the last decade, standing at 70%. While the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa reports that the national population coverage for 4G/LTE was at 97.7% in 2021, placing the nation years ahead of its peers in sub-Saharan Africa. Cassava’s investments will contribute towards positioning South Africa as an attractive investment destination and enable greater inclusion of all South Africans consistent with Cassava’s vision of a digitally connected future that leaves no African behind.
Cassava Technologies has eight subsidiaries including Liquid Intelligent Technologies, Liquid Dataport, Liquid C2, Africa Data Centres, Distributed Power Africa, Sasai Fintech, Telrad and Vaya Technologies
At the conference, the SA president unveiled a new investment target of R2-trillion for the five-year period to 2028 and reported having received R1.51-trillion in pledges from domestic and international investors covering a variety of activities, from telecoms, mining and manufacturing, to economic and social infrastructure, thereby exceeding the R1.2-trillion five-year target set in 2018.
According to SAIC, Telkom and Rain have pledged a respective R5.972-billion and R4-billion, while Teraco pledged R2-billion, Moove R284-million, SA Taxi R500-million and Equinix R3.8-billion.
