Wananchi Group sells 50 per cent stake to US investor

Wananchi will also use the money to upgrade its technical staff, seeking to increase its employee base by 100 more employees by year end.

New technology
The firm hopes to roll out its services using a hybrid fibre coax (HFC) network, which is capable of delivering triple-play services to the customer’s doorstep.
HFC is a technology that combines optical fibre and coaxial cable, to deliver both broadband and television signals across a network.

Currently, Wananchi has created a 187 km network using HFC and hopes to increase that figure to over 2,000km by the end of 2012.

This will enable Zuku to provide over 150 high- and standard-definition channels, and will also allow the firm to offer pay-per-view, video-on-demand and network PVR services.

“We believe that pay television, broadband Internet and voice telephony are services that should be enjoyed by the broad mass of people, and that is what drives our rollout of Zuku,” said Mr. Fannell.

ECP is a private equity firm based in Washington DC, with offices in Cameroon, South Africa, Cote d’Ivoire, Tunisia and Nigeria.

It has a track record of successful investments in Africa, and has so far raised in excess of $ 1.6 billion for its investments.

In June last year, ECP announced a $15 million investment in Blue Financial Services which is a non-deposit taking micro lender serving 10 countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

ECP’s portfolio companies have provided cell phones in Sierra Leone and Malawi, flights to Mali, employ thousands of rural workers in Chad and Congo Brazzaville, provide fertilisers to small Moroccan farms and constructs affordable housing for families in Cameroon.