Cloud services provider enters Ugandan market offering lower costs

June 25, 2019 in Business, Communications, Infrastructure, Technology & Telecoms by Editor

The company wants to cash in on the fact that most companies’ content on the internet is currently hosted on servers outside the continent.

June 25—Ugandan firms and public institutions looking to store their content closer to home rather than on servers sited outside the continent, can now look to afriQloud who have launched their services in Kampala.

Company officials say afriQloud will provide, at internationally competitive rates, local and foreign customers with an innovative and secure distributed edge cloud service. Cloud services involve data centres available to many users over the internet.  Cloud computing allows companies to avoid or minimize up-front IT infrastructure costs.

Hans van Linschoten, founding partner of Imprimatur Capital Africa and CEO of afriQloud said today, “We see significant potential in the growing African cloud market where an estimated $2 billion is being spent in cloud this year, and we’re excited to bring this service to the continent. By the end of 2019 we will complement the few developed markets clouds with a powerful and local distributed cloud in at least 15 countries. This ensures data sovereignty for institutions and governments within Africa’s shores.”

The provider is a partnership between BringCom, science and technology investor, Imprimatur Capital, and European edge cloud software company, GIG Technology.

“We have hit the ground and we intend to keep up the pace. This service in Africa is long overdue. In a few months, we will expand our service in East Africa – Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda and Ethiopia will be afriQloud active very soon. We are working through channels in Southern Africa as well – Zambia, Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Mozambique are our next target markets,” van Linschoten said.

Mark Simmonds, Chairman of GIG Technology said, ”Although cloud adoption is predominantly private, the African markets are generating a growth of 30 pc in public cloud sales. Few other ICT market segments in the African tech ecosystem have the potential of adding an incremental $2 billion in top line revenue over the next 5 years.”

The aim of afriQloud is to have the Edge Cloud installed in cities and tech hub ecosystems which hosts a high number of startups and developers. Now present and operational in Uganda, afriQloud will be spreading its services further into the different regions of Africa this year.

Willem Hendrickx, CEO of GIG Technology: “We believe in partnerships and the creation of local economy using our cloud technology. Having assessed the cloud readiness of different African markets, we are thrilled to launch in Kampala.”

Van Linschoten said, “We are working through channels in Southern Africa as well – Zambia, Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Mozambique are our next target markets. And of course the West African region is good and ripe for the plucking. Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, Ivory Coast and Cameroon – we’ll be present in all these countries this year! We’re very much looking forward to working with tech startups, MNOs, ISPs, government institutions, banks and financial institutions, universities – there is much to be done, and the time to begin is now.”