Infrastructure Brief

News and opinion on public works procurement

Telecommunications

  • Africa|
  • ICT|
  • Telecommunications

    • Mastercard to invest $100 mln in Airtel Africa’s mobile money unit

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    By Kenneth Mwangi

    Global payment processor Mastercard Inc (MA.N) will invest $100 million in Airtel Africa’s (AAF.L) mobile money operations, valuing the business at $2.65 billion, the London-listed company said on Thursday.

    Airtel Africa is targeting a public listing of Airtel Mobile Commerce BV (AMC BV) within the next four years. Earlier this month, private equity firm TPG’s The Rise Fund invested $200 million in AMC BV.

    Mastercard will hold a minority stake in AMC BV, in line with Airtel Africa’s plan to monetise the mobile money business by selling up to a 25% stake in the unit, the company said.

    The unit, operating under the Airtel Money brand in Africa, includes mobile wallets, merchant and commercial payments, virtual credit card and international money transfers available across 14 countries in the region.

  • Europe|
  • ICT|
  • Telecommunications

    • Bulgaria’s Neterra Telecommunications breaks ground on second data center in Sofia

    by

    By Kenneth Mwangi

    Bulgarian telecommunications company Neterra has broken ground on its second data center in the capital of Sofia.

    The four-story, 1,400 square meter (15,000 sq ft) facility, known as Sofia Data Center 2 (SDC-2), is located opposite Neterra’s SDC-1 facility and is being built to Tier III Uptime standards. Construction is due for completion later in 2021.

    It has 2MW of installed capacity, and the company says it plans to become carbon neutral by the end of 2021. Neterra says it already uses 100 percent clean energy for its operations.

    “This is a long-term policy. If we are organized well enough, we can even become carbon negative. This is our responsibility to the environment and the planet. We provide our data center clients with the choice to use power from renewable sources, so they can become carbon neutral as well,” Neven Dilkov, CEO of Neterra Group recently said of the company’s sustainability goals.

    SDC-2 is Neterra’s fourth data center. As well as the two in Sofia, it owns facilities in Stolnik and Ruse.