The Public Investment Corporation (PIC) has provided a $55m (R800m) debt funding facility to Allied Mobile Africa, one of the largest integrated supply chain solutions partners supporting operators, service providers and retailers in Africa.

The facility will help to drive the company's growth in South Africa as well as their expansion on the rest of the African continent.

Daniel Matjila, PIC’s CEO, said: "Communications remains an important element for the economic growth of any country. We are, therefore, happy to provide funding that seeks to unlock economic potential of countries in which Allied Mobile Africa operates.”

“Our funding supports our objective of investing towards development here in South Africa and the rest of the African continent," he added.

From its inception in 2003 Allied Mobile has grown to be the dominant, cellular product distributor and third-party logistics provider to the mobile telecommunications industry in Africa.

Allied's market offering and geographical coverage continue to grow as the company leverages favorable market conditions together with its increasing experience, capabilities and relationships.

The company is well-positioned to capitalize on associated future opportunities with this new funding from the PIC.

Leveraging its leadership position in South Africa and other existing markets, the company has been rapidly expanding its presence into a group of high-growth African countries, with sales volumes expecting to grow between 15% and 20% annually.

These countries include Mozambique, Namibia, Zambia, Uganda, Rwanda, DRC, Angola, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Swaziland, Botswana and Kenya.

"Since these countries are at different economic and technological stages in the development cycle, Allied has to approach these markets with a tailored product offering and a strategy to address specific local needs," said the Allied Group's CEO Jacqueline Cole-Courtney.

Cole-Courtney said that Allied's objective is to be present in every country in Africa and the recent funding from the PIC will assist us in achieving this.

“Our geographical expansion program is being conducted in a very cost-effective and efficient manner, as the core operations are run from Allied's existing Sub-Saharan offices which include eight major hubs and four repair centers located throughout Sub-Saharan Africa, with certain central core functions located in a centralized offshore office, which eliminates the need to duplicate functions," she said.