[Kictanet] Interesting trend with African-led ICT investments

[Brian Longwe]

I am extremely impressed and encouraged to see Wananchi online's bid  
to takeover African Lakes and all their holdings which include all of  
Africa Online's branches as well as a number of infrastructure and  
internet licenses across the continent. Could this be the emergence  
of a truly African Mega-ISP?

Considering the attrition that the ISP industry is facing continent- 
wide, which was very aptly commented on by Russell Southwood in his  
article "The African ISP is dead - Long live the African ISP" where  
he spoke of the encroachment of the mobile operators into internet  
services and the threat that this posed to the ISP as we know it  
today. In this article he clearly indicated some of the survival  
strategies that ISPs would have to consider, including consolidation,  
divestiture into other revenue generating areas e.g. content  
production and regional expansion. It is interesting to note that  
Wananchi seem to have taken the prescription wholesale and are aiming  
to act on almost all of these areas.

For me on a personal basis I am very happy to see an indigenous  
African-led transaction of such magnitude in the ICT sector - which  
has in the past been dominated by "foreigners" who didn't really  
understand african markets. I can't wait to see what else Wananchi  
have up their sleeves!

Regards,

Brian

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Joseph Mucheru <mucheru at wananchi.com>
> Date: January 15, 2007 9:23:47 AM GMT+03:00
> To: "brian at inhand.co.ke" <brian at inhand.co.ke>
> Subject: FW: Press Announcement
>
> From: Wananchi Online Ltd <announcements at wananchi.com>
> Date: Mon, 15 Jan 2007 00:42:06 +0300
> To: <All_Wananchi_Online_Ltd_Customers at wananchi.com>
> Subject: Press Announcement
>
>
> Wananchi Online creates a new Group Structure
>
> On 28th December 2006, Wananchi Online together with a group of  
> Kenyan,
> British and American investors announced its intention to acquire the
> entire issued and to be issued share capital of the African Lakes
> Corporation (TALC). TALC is the holding company of Africa Online  
> Limited
> and UUNET Africa. The success of the acquisition will see the creation
> of Africa's largest consumer broadband company and goes a long way in
> achieving Wananchi's vision of being "Africa's leading Internet
> Communications Provider". The bid is being made through a special
> purpose vehicle registered for this purpose in the UK, The African
> Telecoms Company Limited.
>
> The full text of the announcement can be found at this url:
>
> Short Url:
> http://urlx.org/londonstockexchange.co.uk/fd1e5
>
> Long URL:
> http://www.londonstockexchange.co.uk/LSECWS/IFSPages/ 
> MarketNewsPopup.aspx?id
> =1372930&source=RNS
>
> The conclusion of the transaction will see the creation of a group
> holding company of which I shall become Chairman and Joseph Mucheru
> will become Deputy CEO. We will be joined on the board by amongst
> others Mark Schneider, a seasoned American Media Entrepreneur who will
> become Vice Chairman and Richard Bell, a seasoned East African ICT
> Entrepreneur who will become Chief Executive Officer. Going forward
> the company will implement a strategy to create the largest wireless
> ADSL broadband network in Africa delivering consumer broadband  
> services
> to Wananchi across the continent.
>
> As part of this process and in order to allow Joseph to focus on this
> ambitious project, we are restructuring elements of the existing  
> Wananchi
> Online operations to align them with this strategy. To this end I am
> pleased to announce that with immediate effect Sandeep Mangat will be
> taking over the day to day operations of Wananchi Online and Hamish  
> Govani
> will be assisting him as Chief Financial Officer.
>
> I am also pleased to inform you that Richard Bell has been  
> appointed to
> the board of Wananchi Online to assist in making sure that the  
> companies
> strategies are aligned with the bigger picture which I have already
> outlined. Richard is a former director of TALC, founder of Swift  
> Global
> Kenya and Uganda, founder of Kenya Data Networks, founding Chairman of
> TESPOK, KIXP and KENIC. He is currently the Managing Partner of  
> East Africa
> Capital Partners a private equity firm which specializes in  
> Technology,
> Media and Telecoms investments. He became a Sloan Fellow of the London
> Business School in 2005.
>
> We are please to tell you that limited broadband coverage is already
> available in parts of Nairobi and Mombassa and we will be providing  
> special
> offers and a limited amount of free equipment to existing customers  
> when
> the full rollout begins. So I do encourage you to renew your dial- 
> up and/or
> email subscriptions now so that you can take advantage of these  
> offers when
> the time comes. Those whose subscriptions have lapsed or who fail to
> become WOL customers in time will be time barred from these special  
> customer
> loyalty offers.
>
> We will continue to keep you informed as our plans develop. For  
> further
> information you can contact Sandeep Mangat on 020 329 2000 or email
> sunny.mangat at wananchi.com
>
> -- 
>
> James Gachui,
> Chairman
> Wananchi Online Limited
>
>

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