Dandemutande Investments Limited and Fiber Connections, a wholly owned subsidiary of Bandwidth Cloud Services Group (BCS) has officially launched the fibre optic project in a landmark event held in Somabhula, south of Gweru. The event which was graced by His Excellency the President of Zimbabwe, E.D. Mnangagwa is the culmination of a project which has seen Dandemutande co-building a fibre network of 717km from Beitbridge to Harare and an additional 144km of optic fibre between Somabhula and Bulawayo for an investment of $5 million. A further $1.5million was invested in active equipment together with solar baIn order to ensure resilience. A further investment of $1.5million was made in active equipment and a solar back up solution that ensures sustainable redundancy.
As a result of this collaboration, Dandemutande owns 48 cores of the 96 cores on the route, and therefore a 50% stake in the infrastructure with 100Gbps of capacity currently lit scalable to 400Gbps. This capacity will enable Dandemutande to provide carrier grade backhaul services from South Africa to Zimbabwe. In addition to the fibre backbone laid, Dandemutande plans to invest an additional US$3 million in metro fibre to connect Beitbridge, Bulawayo, Gweru, Kwekwe, and Harare which will increase its national footprint, bringing greater convenience, increased bandwidth, and lower costs to the customer.
Speaking at the launch, Chief Executive Officer Never Ncube said ‘I feel an overwhelming sense of pride and optimism, in witnessing this remarkable great step towards transforming our beautiful Zimbabwe, to a middle-income country, through digital transformation.’ He further said, ‘this project enables us to extend our services to the towns and cities along the backhaul fiber route, where we previously had no presence, and aligns with our national expansion program, empowering the communities we serve’.
Speaking about the occasion, the Board Chairman of Dandemutande Tunde Akerele said ‘ This project reflects our dedication to becoming a significant player in the market. We are committed to positively impacting not only our customers but society as a whole.’
