Liquid Telecom

$15m of debt to anchor the $620m Liquid Telecom bond issuance. Some of the proceeds were used to support part of the company’s wider capex programme in DRC, South Sudan and South Africa.

Direct impact on people

SDG assessment
9.C + 8.5 – Significantly increase access to Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and provide universal and affordable access to the internet.

Expected impact
215k new consumers are expected to benefit. The largest impact will be felt by first time users of the internet and those that consume the most.

 

Wider economy

Expected impact
A large number of firms expected to benefit. The largest impact will be felt by those that are highly dependent on internet for business operations and suffer from reliability issues.

 

Market transformation
Challenge: Lack of affordable internet access remains a key contributor to people in emerging economies.
Channel: Supporting the expansion of Liquid Telecom’s networks which are run on an open access basis, making it cheaper for competitors, customers and suppliers to purchase access on their network.
Outcome: Improved competitiveness of the markets for broadband internet across Africa by providing access to shared broadband infrastructure to all retail operators under open access.

Mobilisation
Mobilised $480m of private sector investment.

 

Climate risk
Transition: Paris aligned. Data centres generally have a high carbon intensity. However there are still issues related to grid reliability in the countries of operation so back-up power generation is still needed to ensure reliability of service. We are actively working with various data centre providers to pilot alternative power sources that enable lowering the carbon footprint of data centres.
Physical: Risks considered and where possible mitigated.