Rwanda: A success story!

SEACOM’s journey into Africa has seen many highs and lows. Speaking to CEO Brian Herlihy, one of his greatest highs was being seated on stage next to four African presidents.

As part of the US-Africa Business summit that was hosted last year by the Corporate Council on Africa in the US, four African heads of state participated in a Presidential Roundtable on regional integration. Herlihy, along with the presidents of Rwanda, Ghana, the Republic of Congo and Sao Tome, participated.

Herlihy mentioned that it was an honour to be on stage with the African presidents and the only reason he was invited to take part was because of Rwandan President Paul Kagame.

“President Kagame said that he would only be part of the roundtable if I was part of his speech,” Herlihy explained. “He [President Kagame] realised the difference between vision and implementation and ultimately economic development is dependent on implementation.

“Having worked in Africa as long as I have, so many people come to me with project ideas. I’m not the president of Rwanda, but I have a good understanding of what it takes to make a project a reality. We have an understanding of what it actually takes.”

Rwanda was a country in which SEACOM decided to change the rules.

“It’s a landlocked country, and through our dealings with Rwanda we changed the business case. Instead of relying on other parties to get the cable to the country, we made it our responsibility.

“We bundled the services on the backhaul and created a seamless package to Rwanda for same price as to Mombasa.. This helped the country overcome the huge cost differential for these countries, making Internet more accessible to its people,” explained Herlihy.

Herlihy explained how the process accelerated the competition and the opportunities for the Rwandan government. The Rwandan government historically recognised EASSY as a project to implement, as President Kagame was chairman of initiative through the African Union (AU).

“When this fell through, Kgame saw the frustration of non-performance. When we came along, he didn’t stop us from doing what we needed to do. My promise to him was that each time I came back to him, I would show him the development to help him have confidence in what we’re doing.

“This gave him a real, tangible plan of work. Kgame is a man of action and what ultimately won him over was that he saw we were doing exactly what we said we would do.”

As a result of the SEACOM project, Rwanda now has access to high speed connectivity.

In August 2009, SEACOM signed a partnership with Rwandatel (subsidiary of LAP Green) and its sister company in Kampala, Uganda Telecom. This agreement enables Rwandatel’s 2G, 3G and ADSL customers uninterrupted high speed connectivity.

Connecting Rwanda to the rest of the world on SEACOM's fiber optic network means that internet users in Rwanda will be able to experience e-learning, faster e-mail downloads, and high-speed web browsing. These developments will pave the way for business growth and bring the Government of Rwanda closer to achieving its goal of accelerating information and communication technology in the country and seeing over 4 million Rwandans gaining high speed internet over the next two to three years.

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Brian Herlihy with African Presidents

Submitted by Team Seacom on Wed, 2009/12/09 - 16:06

Brian speaking on panel with African Presidents at Corporate Council on Africa Business Summit.
From left: Jean Ping, Chairman of the African Union Commission; Denis Sassou-Nguesso, President Republic of Congo; Paul Kagame, President Republis of Rwanda; Jack Modzelewski, moderator; John Atta Mills, President Ghana; Fradique de Menezes, President Republic of Sao Tome and Principe.
September 30, 2009