A consortium of companies planning an undersea cable linking eastern Africa with Europe on Monday won the funding it needed to start construction, a move organisers said will bring this part of the world affordable and reliable telecommunications for the first time.
Five development finance institutions agreed to loan the consortium a total of $70,7-million. The East African Submarine Cable System has been working on the $235-million fibre-optic cable project for five years, said Lars Thunell, the executive vice president of the International Finance, the private sector lending arm of the World Bank.
"Typical cost of Internet access in East Africa is $200 to $300 (about R1 300 to R2 000) a month, which is one of the highest in the world," Thunell told journalists. "We expect that prices will drop about two-thirds when this project is in place and then continue down."
