The Zimbabwean Tech tycoon Strive Masiyiwa’s Econet Group has announced the creation of a new entity, Cassava Technologies, that will house many of the group’s assets.
Cassava Technologies
This new entity, whose headquarters are in London, will bring together Econet’s digital services and infrastructure businesses. This includes the brands we’ve come to know such as Liquid Intelligent Technologies, Africa Data Centres and Distributed Power Technologies, Liquid Cloud, Sasai Fintech and Vaya Technologies.
Cassava’s Aim
Internet in Africa is not as easily accessible as in other developed nations. In addition to it not being available in some remote areas, the cost of data is high in Africa. This makes it difficult for the continent to make the same developmental strides that other nations outside the continent have been able to. Things as basic as education have been difficult to access in Zimbabwe during covid 19 induced lockdown periods for many students. This is as a result of the high costs of data for online lessons. However, many children who attend private schools didn’t miss out very much on their education as they could afford the high costs. Unfortunately, that’s just a small percentage of the whole country.
Cassava Technologies sees a vision of a better Africa than the one described by the challenges above.
Strive Masiyiwa has previously shared his vision for Africa with regards to internet access and associated developments. He believes in making internet services as affordable as Cassava for all in order to create equal opportunities.
The Group already operates various businesses in Africa under the names, Econet Wireless Zimbabwe, Econet LEO (Burundi), Econet Telecom Lesotho, Econet’s investment in Mascom Wireless Botswana, and Econet’s mobile money business, EcoCash Holdings Zimbabwe.
The group proves to be working towards fulfilling their vision since a deal is said to have already been secured to bring cheap internet to Central African countries.
Statement From Cassava Technologies’ CEO
We already shared the founder and Chairman of this new entity, Strive Masiyiwa’s vision for Africa, however, the CEO of the entity, Hardy Pemhiwa had sentiments of his own to share. The showed how Cassava Technologies will work towards Africa’s advancement.
He said:
“We are delighted to announce the launch of Cassava Technologies. Our unmatched fiber broadband, data centres and renewable energy infrastructure, paired with fintech, cloud, cybersecurity, and on-demand digital platforms, will accelerate Africa’s digital transformation.”
Zimbabweans are often complaining about the high prices of data especially by Econet. Myself as a Zimbabwean, am already impatiently waiting for our turn to receive cheap, fast and easily accessible internet access in the country.