Liquid Telecom has appointed Mohamed Abdel Bassit as its new Regional CEO for Middle East and West Africa (MEWA). Based in Cairo, Bassit will oversee the group’s expansion further into MEWA following the recent news that it is investing US$400m in the Egyptian market and has completed the first fibre network to stretch all the way from Cape Town to Cairo.
Bassit will also explore new market opportunities in West Africa as Liquid Telecom begins expanding its service offering into the region. He joins Liquid Telecom from Orange Group, where he served as Regional Director for voice, data and mobile services in the Middle East for the past year. He previously served as VP of operations for Gulf Bridge International, and prior to that spent 10 years as Managing Director for Middle East and North Africa at Belgacom International Carrier Services (BICS), where he helped establish the company as a leading regional voice and mobility services carrier.
Liquid Telecom to invest US$400 million in deal with Telecom Egypt
Liquid Telecom will invest 8 billion Egyptian Pounds (US$400 million) in Egypt over the next three years as part of its partnership with Telecom Egypt on network infrastructure and data centres.
Specifically, Liquid Telecom will make an initial investment of US$50 million in data centres and cloud services. Liquid Telecom plans to invest an additional US$350 million in broadband and financial inclusion initiatives, as well as high capacity data centres.
Liquid Telecom’s expanding network is almost 70,000km in length and is linked to more than 600 towns and cities in 13 countries across Africa.
