This complexity makes modernisation a daunting task and explains why telcos often hesitate to replace or overhaul these systems.

Not only is it costly and time-consuming to swap out your BSS but it’s also risky. A failed migration isn’t just an IT problem, it’s a potential business crisis, affecting service, revenue and reputation.

Within the average BSS, each module is tightly integrated with others so even a small change can have ripple effects across critical operations.

But sticking with a legacy BSS can quietly constrain a telco’s growth, agility, and customer experience. While these systems might be stable, a legacy BSS often works too rigidly, limiting the operator’s ability to evolve as quickly as the competition.

Launching new products and offers can take months instead of weeks because an older BSS is often heavily customised and thus more difficult to modify without extensive testing and downstream changes. Where modern systems are built for agility and immediacy, a legacy BSS can’t support real-time interactions and omnichannel journeys.

Let’s imagine an enterprise client wants to open a sponsored account for specific employees. A legacy BSS will struggle to set this up because these platforms weren’t designed to handle multi-party billing, real-time usage tracking, or flexible limits and notifications, which are essential for sponsored accounts. Similarly, setting up self-service offerings, which empower customers to manage their accounts, services, and issues independently, is possible but incredibly difficult with a legacy BSS.

Innovation in the front, legacy in the back

Given these realities, a common strategy sees operators upgrading the front end of a BSS while keeping the backend intact. This approach makes it possible to improve the user interface and the customer experience without disrupting core billing, service assurance, or revenue critical systems.

By modernising and updating the customer facing portal, operators can unlock new capabilities without making a massive change on the backend. And customers immediately benefit from a more modern, attractive experience.

This strategy also avoids the high cost and potential risks associated with a BSS ‘rip and replace’. By adopting a modular, phased approach to BSS modernisation, telos can introduce new functionality incrementally.

In addition, front-end modernisation often involves API layers that can connect legacy BSS to new services, digital ecosystems, or partner platforms. This opens up opportunities for new revenue streams and digital partnerships without backend disruption.

For CTOs and CIOs, the message is clear: modernising your BSS doesn’t mean you have to tear everything down and start over.

Legacy systems, while rigid and complex, provide the stability and reliability needed to keep revenue flowing and critical operations running.

By layering new technology on top of your existing BSS, you can introduce innovation safely, one step at a time.

This approach allows you to roll out new customer experiences, self-service capabilities, or sponsored account features without risking downtime or revenue leakage. In essence, you’re renovating rather than rebuilding: keeping the strong foundations that work while adding flexibility, agility, and modern functionality where it counts.

As the country’s most commonly used chat app, WhatsApp is fast becoming a digital marketplace and hub for product discovery, customer support, personalised recommendations and even seamless checkout.

What was once a simple chat tool is now becoming a natural extension of the retail experience, allowing brands to meet customers where they already spend their time.

A combination of reach, personalisation, trust and convenience has seen WhatsApp become a powerful channel for shopping and customer engagement in recent years.

In South Africa, where 93-96% of internet users regularly access WhatsApp, consumers are comfortable asking questions, sharing preferences and interacting with brands directly.

However, WhatsApp’s real advantage is its ability to support an always-on, two-way conversation. Features such as catalogues, rich media, interactive buttons and integrated payment capabilities now allow customers to move effortlessly from enquiry to purchase, without ever leaving the app.

Shift in consumer behaviour

With modern consumers increasingly prioritising speed, convenience and personalisation, their shopping behaviour continues to shift towards chat-based purchasing.

Channels like WhatsApp can provide instant responses and real-time help, offering the kind of support customers would traditionally expect from a sales assistant, but accessible anytime on a mobile device.

This means that consumers no longer have to browse static websites or fill in long forms. They can simply ask questions, compare options and make decisions, all within a single interaction.

This keeps the entire customer journey, from enquiry to checkout, within one trusted channel and reduces friction.

Across a wide range of industries, businesses that rely on conversational guidance, repeat engagement and customer loyalty are increasingly finding that WhatsApp is delivering significant value.

It not only helps to lessen the pressure on traditional contact centres through automated support and self-service, but also assists SMEs in running promotions and simplifying their e-commerce journeys.

Ubiquitous appeal of WhatsApp

Until now, retail has largely led the way with WhatsApp adoption due to its reliance on rich media and interactive capabilities.

However, other sectors such as travel, telecoms and financial services are now steadily making use of the channel as an effective extension of their customer communication strategy – especially around how easy it is to ask a question and pay in the same chat.

Across these use cases, the appeal remains the same for consumers: a trusted, personalised and smooth communication experience that facilitates engagement and buying decisions while strengthening long-term customer relationships.

The deployment of automation and Artificial Intelligence (AI) further enhances the experience, as it allows for largescale, rapid and personalised support. This ensures smoother and more efficient interactions for both customers and brands.

AI’s ability to provide personalised suggestions based on past customer behaviour, preferences and purchases will only become better as the technology becomes smarter.

This will effectively replicate the role of an experienced and knowledgeable shop assistant, reducing friction, building confidence and helping customers smoothly navigate from interest to engagement, through to purchase in a single conversation.

For example, a chatbot can help a customer compare two products, check availability in a nearby store, and send a payment link – all within a single thread. The challenge is to make these experiences feel human and helpful, not intrusive.

The importance of personalisation

WhatsApp’s inherent nature as a one-to-one channel plays into the modern customer’s expectations for relevant, tailored and informed interactions, as the demand for personalisation is becoming critical.

Customers are increasingly seeking experiences that feel helpful with messages that reflect their preferences, past behaviour and previous conversations, rather than generic messaging that comes across as promotional.

Ultimately, customers are more likely to buy when they feel understood, which underscores the importance of personalised recommendations, context-aware responses and offers linked to browsing or purchase history.

Personalisation is key to elevating WhatsApp from just another messaging channel to a digital sales assistant that strengthens relationships and builds trust and long-term loyalty.

What lies ahead

WhatsApp’s evolution from a simple chat channel into a primary commerce and service interface is set to continue over the next two to three years, with the platform effectively becoming a storefront, sales assistant and support agent all in one.

More of the customer journey will take place inside the channel as consumers move away from downloading apps or navigating websites and toward a more fluid conversational commerce experience.

With AI adoption gaining momentum, chatbots will have a greater ability to understand intent and context, detect sentiment and offer personalised, real-time recommendations that will translate into more natural interactions.

Voice is also expected to play a bigger role in engagement. Online and in-store journeys will be unified across touchpoints by smoother payments and better integration with e-commerce, customer relationship management (CRM) and loyalty systems.

Ultimately, significant opportunities lie ahead for large retailers, financial services providers, and SMEs that adopt WhatsApp for e- commerce.

The channel is rapidly becoming smarter, more intuitive and capable of delivering high-quality experiences without requiring large budgets or complex technology.

Stuck in contracts. Stuck in complexity. Stuck with software that isn’t doing as it promised. A significant percentage of customer relationship management (CRM) project risk, says Forrester, stems from issues around technical integration (48%), lack of business process design (31%), and not structuring solutions to fit unique needs (21%).

A 2025 report by Ascend2 said the same thing – most companies feel like they are disconnected from their CRM system and not taking advantage of the full range of features, leaving them locked into expensive, underperforming platforms.

The Forrester study points to an ongoing trend in choosing features over usability which leads overly complicated systems that disengage users and don’t deliver value. For companies navigating CRM decisions in 2025, the stakes have to change.

The risk isn’t choosing the wrong features or paying too much per user (although these remain important deciding factors), but in being locked into a system that underperforms, over charges and limits business growth and agility. Which is completely counterintuitive.

A CRM system should be a strategic asset that helps companies personalise engagement, drive sustainable growth, create unified customer views, access insights, and define business approaches. As IDC says, it is a tool capable of providing unprecedented insights and automation.

A sentiment echoed in a 2024 systematic review of 46 different studies which found that a good CRM implementation can lead to up to 40% in customer retention and a 15-30% increase in sales.

These systems sit at the centre of customer engagement, compliance, marketing and business intelligence.

However, in South Africa, many companies remain anchored to server-based environments, cautious of the cloud and unsure of how to access the value of newer technologies such as AI within CRM.

Companies are concerned about data sovereignty, security, cost unpredictability and diminished control as cloud solutions gain traction, but the truth is that the platform isn’t the problem, it’s the approach.

Companies often fall into the trap of deploying a CRM system based on its availability, pricing or perceived market standard, only to discover it cannot scale, support compliance or integrate meaningfully across departments.

Some attempt to implement CRM systems themselves using free or entry-level tools without guidance and support, which compromises their long-term vision and results in siloed data, frustrated users and a system that adds more operational costs than benefits.

Pulling the business out of the quicksand starts with stepping back from technology decisions and focusing instead on structural alignment.

Your CRM needs to be evaluated as an enabler of strategic priorities and not as a standalone system so you need to start with a clear understanding of your business objectives, user experience and expectations, data security obligations and long-term scalability requirements.

It’s key to map out what success looks like before implementing a CRM platform and choosing a CRM model that fits the maturity of the business – don’t assume an appetite or budget for features that will be never used.

Immediacy and ambition need to be balanced. Companies are all at different stages of growth and CRM requirements to finding the right fit means finding a balance between where you are right now, and where you want to go tomorrow.

Rapid deployment models, such as fixed-scope implementations with known costs and clear timelines, are a very practical way of moving into a CRM solution as they remove the guesswork, reduce upfront costs, and allow you to stage your optimisation based on real-world usage.

This phased approach is really beneficial for companies wanting to step smoothly into a reliable CRM system and still have the space to experiment with AI, automation or any other new technology tools.

While global CRM vendors are adding Copilot tools and predictive features, most companies are still building confidence in their core processes, so the focus comes down to a secure, stable CRM foundation that gives you the space to grow when your business is ready.

If Indiana Jones can escape the quicksand, so can your business. It comes down to revising your approaches and insisting on clear pricing, shared accountability, and measurable value and investing into a CRM that can evolve with you and the market.

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The economic environment makes attracting new customers more difficult, forcing businesses to focus on customer retention and growing wallet share.

When consumers are under pressure, businesses are under even more pressure to retain and delight their customers.

A recent global survey commissioned by 8×8 and Hanover Research, Customer Experience: 2030 Vision, found that 46% – that’s almost half – of contact centre, customer experience (CX) and IT leaders believe that CX will be the top differentiator for brands by 2030.

In other words, according to more than 500 respondents, within six years CX will trump everything else in the battle to retain customers.

Drivers for a great customer experience

CX is the golden thread that runs through every aspect of a business, creating “wow” moments for customers. Author of The 10 Principles Behind Great Customer Experience, Matt Watkinson says CX is: “The sum total of all interactions a customer has with a company, across all channels, over time.” 

The 10 principles of CX are: Make it easy; be relevant; be responsive; be consistent; be proactive; be human; be transparent; be empowering; be forgiving; and be memorable.

Here’s the problem, according to recent research done by Bain & Company: 80% of businesses believed they were customer-centric, whereas a survey of their customers told a different story, finding that only 8% really deliver an extraordinary experience.

If a business wants to delight its customers, it needs to extract insights directly from its customers.

You cannot know what your customers want and need if you don’t ask them, and so investing in this process – without creating unnecessary friction – will drive business change aimed at improving your CX, which will drive the bottom line.

Listening to your customers and reacting to their needs builds trust – with both customers and employees.

South African CX expert and consultant, Michelle Badenhorst, who has co-authored two bestseller books on CX, advises that even though customer feedback is important, it by itself is not enough to drive a growing CX strategy.

There are three layers of insights businesses should consider:

• Customer understanding (Voice of the Customer)
• Employee feedback (Voice of the Employee)
• Process insights (Voice of the Process) 

According to her, businesses create authentic customer experiences, fueled by motivated and happy employees, enabled by technology.

Technology isn’t the customer experience; it is a stack of tools that the business leverages to deliver the experience. CX is agnostic of technology as much as it is enabled by it.

Moving from buzzword to business change

CX is certainly a trendy term, and even though businesses know they must deliver a strong CX, it can become confusing. Businesses often don’t know where to start, whether they should redesign their entire CX journey or whether they should be adding elements in a modular fashion.

It’s here that working with industry specialist partners makes the world of difference. There are many tools out there but businesses don’t need to deploy them all at once.

Remember the principles of CX? There is no sense in deploying a communication channel if your customers don’t want or need it.

By designing your systems carefully and properly, with the right platforms, CX improves alongside an equally important journey: Employee experience (EX).

Enabling employees by providing real-time context and a single view of the customer, for example, builds a strong EX, which ensures your employees are equipped to deliver the service level required.

Building blocks to deliver a good CX

A basic building block is to have a good customer relationship management (CRM) platform that offers interoperability into other systems, for example an omnichannel solution.

This is important as it provides users with a single view of each customer and context of previous discussions, across multiple channels.

This enables greeting the customer in the way they prefer and knowing exactly where the last communication ended… so as to be human, relevant, proactive and responsive, and if the issue is resolved timeously, memorable. It’s all about the CX principles.

In the landscape of customer service, contact centres serve as the face of an organisation, playing a pivotal role in handling inquiries, resolving issues and ensuring client satisfaction. Modern day Cloud-based omnichannel solutions offer a single view of customer interactions across multiple channels, including voice, chat, email, SMS, fax, and social media.

This allows for the management of several channels of communication in a unified and integrated environment.

Technology isn’t the customer experience, but it enables employees to deliver a great CX to customers.

There’s no doubt that an omnichannel solution is the first step on the digital journey towards a memorable CX experience, and the best results occur when a business deploys new channels and processes in concert with customer’s requirements – in other words, listening to them and then building a better experience.

Lastly, once there are multiple channels and real-time capabilities, it is prudent for businesses to remember their brand voice and to use their channels correctly to amplify and support their brand voice, and not dilute it or alienate their customers.

There are rough seas ahead, but a vessel equipped to delight customers will sail on with purpose.

He has held the position of Country Manager for Infobip Nigeria along with his multi-varied past roles in other organisations as; Assistant General Manager (Nigeria) at CWG plc, Software Services Sales Leader & Cloud Specialist (Central and West Africa) for IBM, and Executive Director Sales (West Africa) for BCX.

Olatayo Ladipo-Ajai, in this interview with TechEconomy, speaks to challenges many retail organisations face today and how they can leverage the period of Black Friday to win-back old customers or acquire new ones. Is there how can Infobip help your organisation? Well, Mr. Ladipo-Ajai has the answer:

What were Infobip’s major findings during the COVID era? What are some of the actions taken by various companies that are still practiced today, based on the impact of COVID.

When talking specifically about organisations that are retail and/or e-commerce focused, the pandemic has changed the way that we do business. Looking at this sector of businesses, you see that many of them have had to enhance their functionalities and features on the customer engagement channels/platforms, solidifying the need to look for ways to make their customers more comfortable.

The pandemic has also enabled businesses to look for ways to become more competitive in the customer experience arena and to meet customers’ online shopping expectations since the pandemic restricted shopping in physical stores.

Furthermore, another finding relates to an increase in consumers moving towards online shopping, and subsequently needing products to be delivered directly to their homes.

The retailers that didn’t have an online presence prior to the pandemic, such as supermarkets that were predominantly dependent on physical foot traffic, had to then create ways for customers to make purchases without having to physically visit their store.

As a result, some stores in Nigeria started using media channels, such as WhatsApp, to communicate with their customers.

The customer can simply send their shopping request via WhatsApp, by sending a list and pictures of what they want to buy. Should the customer need to contact a customer care agent, they can also communicate their queries via this platform too. It’s as simple as that.

In a nutshell, what the pandemic has proven to the retail sector is that organisations have to have an online presence alongside their physical presence in order to remain relevant and competitive.

How can retailers stay ahead of the curve without losing out in the market?

This requires a shift in mindset in realizing the customers’ position in the retail ecosystem. Traditionally, customers were at the helm of either the business owner or subscription platform. In today’s times, the customer is king, and has the power to dictate who he or she buys from, especially since we live in a highly competitive market, surrounded by choice.

The introduction of certain features such as ‘click-to-buy’ speaks to the ‘customer is king’ ideology, showcasing that retailers are having to fight more avidly for customers’ attention.

Manufacturers and retailers therefore have to look for ways in which they can help the customer make decisions faster and with ease, try enticing their purchase. At the end of the day, the customer is looking for a seamless purchase process.

Click-to-buy, as an example, requires the customer to pre-register their payment details on a specific platform or on the retailer’s website, so that the customer can select an item and pay for it seamlessly in a matter of moments.

This eliminates the customer having to input their payment details each time they are looking to make a purchase, and therefore eliminates them potentially abandoning their cart.

Click-to-buy is a classic customer-centric feature that allows customers to spend less time thinking about a purchase. This in turn has a positive impact on customer engagement, the customer experience and the overall customer psychology attached to the process.

This shopping feature makes purchasing so easy and efficient that it can even promote impulsive purchases – something which retailers certainly won’t complain about.

Aside from being entirely customer-conscious, another way for retailers to stay ahead of the curve is to continuously innovate, and work towards constantly improving the customers’ experience and by proving them with the right tools that enable them to make faster purchasing decisions which in turn should lead to a quick check out process.

How has Infobip helped banks like Zenith in their customer acquisition quest, bringing it down to how retailers can attract buyers to their site especially in Black Friday space?

We can look at this situation twofold: firstly, looking how retailers can engage customers better, and secondly, ensuring that customers actually buy from them. At the end of the day, retailers’ primary focus is on ensuring that customers buy, and that they do so repeatedly.

It is crucial to have a communications strategy that encompasses multiple customer engagement touchpoints, and customers need to have a choice on which communication platform they want to be engaged on. So, retailers have to be available via phone, website, a mobile app (if relevant), WhatsApp and other social media platforms.

Organisations now need to understand that because the customer is in the centre of this engagement process, the communication structure must be a complete cycle. That means that the communication needs to be bi-directional so that the organisation can in turn communicate with the customers as well. Ultimately, there must be an avenue for a conversation exchange.

Retailers also need to ensure that their social media channels are active, as this can be a tool to help attract customer to your website or platform.

Customer feedback and reviews/ratings are another powerful means to attract new customers to a business’ website, as potential customers will often look to the experience of an existing customer before deciding to purchase.

To enhance the customer experience, retailers need to understand how to suggest to customers what other customers purchased while they were on your site. This will encourage them to shop more by showcasing a range of products that complement one other.

While the abovementioned features enhance the customer experience, it’s the customer engagement that truly helps attract potential buyers to your shopping portal. When potential customers hear about the seamless and efficient shopping experience on a retailer’s site alongside the great customer service, they are tempted to visit the site for themselves. Word of mouth remains an incredibly powerful marketing tool.

On the topic of Black Friday, retailers need to ‘jump on the bandwagon’ or risk being left behind. To entice customers to shop, retailers can employ various tactics such as supplying free items to complement a purchase, supplying free delivery of items, or else having an uncomplicated return policy to accommodate shoppers who may end up with buyer’s remorse. Elements like this can set a retailer apart from their competition.

What can retailers do to drive sustainability? What kind of services/solutions can Infobip help them?

Since COVID-19, many Nigerians have had to change their mindset in terms of how they buy. Prior to the pandemic, many Nigerians typically wouldn’t buy items online without seeing it, yet today, shopping habits have changed drastically and many Nigerians are prioritising online shopping, which has led to the rise of ecommerce and subsequent delivery platforms.

Interestingly, there’s now more trust in the online retail ecosystem.

In order to look at what’s required to help optimise our customers’ platforms or websites, there are a multitude of engagement strategies to employ, especially when Black Friday is on the horizon. I’ve touched on a few strategies earlier, but just to recap: retailers need a sound communications strategy, they need to fully understand their market and customers, and they need to be able to engage the customer (if need be) on their preferred platform.

When talking about Black Friday, the question on everyone’s mind is: how do I sell? For starters, one way to lose out on sales is with a website crash, so this needs to a consideration.

As a retailer, does your website have sound security, adequate bandwidth, and a strong capability to handle the high volumes of traffic?

Furthermore, to entice Black Friday shoppers to your online store, retailers need to heighten their social media presence. But, more than that, what is your social media strategy? Are you using your social channels as an informative platform? Or are you communicating deals or specials? Will you be posting banners, and what happens if a customer clicks on the banner – will it take them to a buying page? These are all considerations that retailers need to take into account.

Technology has enabled businesses to optimise their website or retail platforms and to ensure that there’s a golden thread between the various purchase channels. For example, there’s a good chance that a customer may call your contact centre and ask about a particular deal in your Black Friday promo page that sits on your website. So, when the customer calls, are they able to make a payment there and then, or be sent automatically to a purchase page?

These are all examples of technologies that can help drive sales for retail businesses, and it’s what gives retailers  or retailers an edge. It certainly sets them apart from the other organisations that just send out adverts without follow up or additional information to entice customers to close a sale.

At Infobip, our products offer a 360-degree solution to ensure that our customers’ objectives are achieved. It is essential that businesses adopt an omnichannel strategy that ties everything together, ensuring that the customer is served faster and that they can make decisions easily across any of the communications platforms on offer.

If you want to talk to companies in terms of incentives, what advise would you share with businesses or retailers to give to their customers?

In terms of incentives, there’s no limit to what can be done, however, it depends on what your business is all about. If your business is reliant on traffic to your website via the likes of YouTube, Facebook, and other social media platforms, it would make sense to offer subsidised data for your customers, because you ultimately want them to consume your adverts/content.

As a retail organisation, for a period like Black Friday, I touched on the incentives that e-tailers can employ. Furthermore, businesses can include engaging features on their platforms, for example, we have the Web RTC, like a web video. This is a situation where your website can offer a video call that is free and when your customers want to talk to someone, a video pops up and they can engage and ask questions.

There’s also Request for Calls, you can just click a button and you get a call from a customer care centre. Everything connects seamlessly and the call is toll-free.

There are also an alerts feature used by websites whereby a customer clicks on the button and requests to be alerted when a particular product becomes available. The organisation then calls the customer when the product is in stock.

For Infobip, do you have solutions that are tailored to SMEs and Startups, as some can’t afford expensive solutions?

Aside from servicing enterprise businesses in Nigeria, we carry a lot of communication traffic for SMEs and startups, especially tech startups.

Interestingly, at least 90% of the biggest e-commerce platforms in Nigeria and West Africa run a large portion of their traffic on Infobip’s platforms. This includes emails, SMS, voicemails, among others.

We also offer a range of self-service products, which are not necessarily structured to big corporate strategies. Small organisations can easily use their credit or debit cards to make payment and ship out their products to customers.

Are payments for your services receivable in Naira?

Infobip is a Nigerian company, and we don’t operate through third parties. We are registered here and collect payment in Naira.

In terms of the Metaverse and the future of customer experience, do you see a shift happening very soon, especially in this market, to improve customer experience?

Considering the direction that Nigeria is moving in, we are very aligned with global technology. However, it’s important to note that there are two segments of Nigeria: there’s the digitally-aware economy of Nigeria, and the growing/yet to be included economy of Nigeria. That is where the potential lies, and as Nigeria begins to build that awareness, you will see a bigger market.

Currently, about 20% of the population is in the digitally-aware scope. So, in terms of the solutions pertaining to the metaverse, virtual reality, AI and others, organisations need to give customers a more inclusive and entrenched experience.

Organisations that will begin to use these tools to their advantage will reap the rewards. While there is a wealth of opportunity in Africa, we are still struggling with infrastructural challenges such as data and bandwidth issues.

Organisations that are interested in going that route can start with baby steps, and look at more tailored solutions, in order to provide the customers with a better experience.

What are you bringing on board for this Black Friday?

One of the key things we want our customer to take advantage of is our platform – the fact that it is a single paying dashboard solution that allows you to orchestrate across all your channels.

A lot of customers don’t know that the same channel they’re routing their SMS is the same channel they can allocate to a customer care consultant, create a chatbot for their website or mobile app. They can manage comments, responses, etc., all on one platform.

Another thing that would interest customers is that our platform is integratable into their CRM, ERP and other systems.

They can inter-relate information across different software applications that they use within their business and into Infobip’s platform.

We also offer a section where customers can engage with our customer experience consultants to advise them on the services. We are proud to mention that we are giving out free customer experience services to our big customers to guide them on purchasing products.

The acquisition marks a significant step for SEACOM and is a testament to the company’s commitment to providing, competitive end-to-end connectivity and ICT solutions across the region.

“East Africa has been an important market for SEACOM ever since we first arrived on the shores of Mombasa in 2009,” explained Tejpal Bedi, Managing Director and Regional Head of Sales for SEACOM ENEA. “By officially establishing ourselves in Uganda through proprietary facilities and resources, we are prioritising widespread connectivity and opening up opportunities to work with businesses in search of quality Internet services.”

This latest expansion comes on the heels of SEACOM’s recent acquisition of Kenyan service provider Hirani Telecom’s metro fibre network.

SEACOM is poised to take over a comprehensive portfolio of infrastructure essential for connecting enterprise customers.

This includes 760 kilometres of fibre within the Ugandan capital city of Kampala and surrounding towns, a 250 square metre data centre, and office space for SEACOM representatives and staff members.

“The acquisition goes hand in hand with our five-year strategy into expanding operations in the region,” Tej added. “As such, we are very excited about having a greater local presence.”

SEACOM has provided wholesale solutions to Uganda since its inception in 2009, and corporate solutions since 2018.

The leading service provider enjoys a large footprint in Uganda’s financial services sector (FSI) and works with government and non-governmental organisations, including those in the education, technology and hospitality sectors.

Although dominated by small businesses, Uganda is home to a thriving private sector with thousands of medium to large-sized businesses located primarily across Kampala and the central region.

There’s also a growing Internet penetration rate with competitive connectivity prices as compared to other countries in the region.

The acquisition of established infrastructure will allow for further expansion into East Africa, enabling SEACOM to provide seamless integration of its services for clients across Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania, and decreasing the reliance on third-party last mile providers to deliver connectivity solutions – solutions that include wireless and fibre Internet access, cloud connectivity, as well as hosting facilities, such as email and security, such as distributed denial of service (DDoS) protection software.

“SEACOM is responding to the needs of the market. Customers are starting to buy more bandwidth. Businesses are making use of the cloud like never before, using enterprise resource planning, Office 365, and customer relationship management (CRM) solutions that serve not just to fill gaps, but aid in driving digital transformation and strengthening internal and external capabilities. The growth of the Internet in the region follows the demands of these businesses, and it’s up to us to facilitate that. The end result is lower prices, improved reactions, and an overall better experience for our customers,” concluded Tej.