{"id":194472,"date":"2025-10-01T10:22:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T10:22:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/194472\/"},"modified":"2025-10-01T10:22:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T10:22:11","slug":"mawingu-secures-sh2-6bn-20m-to-expand-digital-access-in-underserved-communities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/194472\/","title":{"rendered":"Mawingu secures Sh2.6bn ($20M) to expand digital access in underserved communities"},"content":{"rendered":"

From left: Sarah Buyaki – Chief People Officer, Farouk Ramji, CEO, John Omagwa, Chief Operating Officer, Millie Abila, Head of Communications & Marketing<\/p>\n

Mawingu, East Africa\u2019s largest Internet Service Provider (ISP) focused on rural and peri-urban
\nmarkets, has secured a $20 million [Sh2.6 billion] investment from Pembani Remgro Infrastructure Fund II
\n(PRIF II), a leading African infrastructure investment fund.<\/p>\n

This strategic funding will
\naccelerate Mawingu\u2019s mission to scale inclusive, sustainable internet access across
\nunderserved communities in Africa. \n<\/p>\n

The investment is a significant milestone in Mawingu\u2019s long-term expansion strategy, which
\naims to impact 1 million people across the continent by 2028 through a combination of
\ndisciplined acquisitions of local ISPs and the development of digital infrastructure in areas
\nhistorically left behind due to high capital costs and geographic barriers. \n<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a multi-country operator on the continent with dedicated presence in the rural and
\nperi-urban markets, this latest funding announcement marks a significant milestone for
\nMawingu, moving closer to our goal of positively impacting 1 million people in Africa by
\n2028,” said\u00a0Mawingu\u2019s Chief Executive Officer, Farouk RAMJI.<\/p>\n

Internet access has been shown to deliver benefits for education, employment, and income,
\nas well as promoting wider economic development.<\/p>\n

Sarah Buyaki – Chief People Officer, Farouk Ramji, CEO<\/p>\n

However, in many countries across the
\ncontinent, rural and peri-urban customers tend to be unserved or underserved by existing
\nbroadband provision, and access costs can be prohibitively high. <\/p>\n

To address this \u2018digital gap,\u2019
\nMawingu, through a disciplined \u2018buy-and-build\u2019 strategy, acquires, builds, and operates
\nsustainable networks which can be deployed in challenging rural and peri-urban environments. \n<\/p>\n

The identification and acquisition of other successful ISPs will rapidly broaden the scale of
\nMawingu\u2019s impact, enabling the company to expand its network to strategic markets across
\nthe continent.<\/p>\n


\nThe expansion strategy builds on Mawingu\u2019s successful entry into Tanzania through the 2024
\nacquisition of Habari. <\/p>\n

Since the acquisition, Mawingu has secured a national license, added\u00a0more than 3,000 home users, and extended Habari\u2019s coverage to 9 regions, including Arusha,
\nDodoma, Iringa, Manyara, Mara, Kilimanjaro, Mwanza, Morogoro and Shinyanga.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Leading the transaction from PRIF II\u2019s perspective, Ridwaan TAYOB said, \u201cMawingu\u2019s track record of disciplined growth and innovation in underserved markets
\nmakes them an ideal partner for PRIF II. This investment reflects our confidence in their
\nability to scale sustainably across Africa, and we\u2019re excited to support their mission of
\nexpanding meaningful connectivity where it\u2019s needed most.\u201d \n<\/p>\n

The limited adoption of fixed broadband in Sub-Saharan Africa represents a missed
\nopportunity for inclusive digital and economic growth.<\/p>\n

While mobile internet is more
\nwidespread, household-level fixed broadband remains accessible to only around 12% of
\nhouseholds. <\/p>\n

The World Bank has found that a 10% increase in broadband penetration can raise
\nGDP growth by 1.38% in developing countries.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From left: Sarah Buyaki – Chief People Officer, Farouk Ramji, CEO, John Omagwa, Chief Operating Officer, Millie Abila,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":194473,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[14517,23581,112887,174,112886,3,43965,74,6836,43964],"class_list":["post-194472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-internet","tag-access","tag-communities","tag-continent","tag-internet","tag-mawingu","tag-news","tag-star-news-kenya","tag-technology","tag-the-star","tag-the-star-newspaper"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194472"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194472\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}