IFC and the IFC African, Latin American, and Caribbean Fund (IFC ALAC Fund) have participated in a new round of growth financing for Afrimax Group, a telecommunication operator in sub-Saharan Africa.

IFC and the IFC ALAC Fund, a fund managed by the IFC Asset Management Company, contributed $14m to the round, following earlier combined investments of $19.5m in 2013.

Aniko Szigetvari, Global Head, Telecommunications, Media and Technology for IFC, said: “Our continued support to Afrimax reflects IFC’s long term strategy to increase broadband access in Africa.”

“Sub-Saharan African mobile penetration is around 85% but currently less than 10% of mobile phone users in the region can access the Internet by broadband connection. Afrimax is improving this, giving people access to efficiency gains, business opportunities and greater access to information,” she said.

Overall, Afrimax has secured $120m of growth funding from a consortium of investors led by Mitsui & Co., the Japanese conglomerate headquartered in Tokyo, and includes participation from existing shareholders.

Afrimax was founded by mobile telephony entrepreneurs Jay Metcalfe (Chairman), Peter Langkilde (CEO) and Rob Philpott (CFO) who, for over 20 years, have been involved in highly successful telecommunications start-ups, operations and financing in Africa and around the world including Millicom, Celtel and BellSouth.

In November 2014, Vodafone and Afrimax Group jointly announced a non-equity strategic framework agreement to cooperate and explore opportunities for partner market agreements in the Sub-Saharan Africa region.

Under this framework agreement, Vodafone Uganda was launched in February 2015, combining the deployment of new high speed 4G networks with the use of existing infrastructure for 2G/3G services.

The new investment round will accelerate the rollout of Afrimax’s LTE led business model across multiple African markets.

LTE (4G Long Term Evolution) is the latest generation of mobile network technology, which is already established as the global standard for the 4th generation of wireless broadband – a step change from any other wireless broadband technology.

Etleva Koka, Principal, IFC ALAC Fund, said: “We are pleased to strengthen our partnership with Afrimax as it continues to grow in the region. The company has a strong track record of providing broadband internet services that are very much needed in the Sub-Saharan Africa countries.”

Nobuaki Kitamori, COO of IT & Communication Business Unit of Mitsui & Co., added: “We are excited by the growth opportunities in Sub Saharan Africa, where Afrimax has secured one of the industry's largest footprints of 4G licences, and plan to rapidly replicate the successful launch of Vodafone Uganda. With the support of our fellow Shareholders, we look forward to building one of the region's leading next generation MNOs.”