AXIAN Telecom’s subsidiary Yas has completed the purchase of 99.63% of Wananchi Group, a major East African broadband and enterprise connectivity provider.
- •The acquisition strengthens Yas’s fibre network presence in Kenya, one of the region’s fastest-growing digital markets, and positions the company to expand in neighbouring countries including Tanzania, Uganda, and Malawi.
- •Wananchi, which operates under the Zuku and Simbanet brands, has built an extensive fibre backbone and last-mile network in urban and peri-urban areas.
- •AXIAN Telecom is Africa’s sixth-largest mobile operator with over 41 million customers, and has grown through acquisitions and network investments since 2015.
“We are committed to bringing high-speed Internet to millions more Africans. Our strong performance so far, doubling of our fixed broadband base and achieving double-digit revenue and EBITDA growth, shows the strength of our model,” said Hassan Jaber, CEO of AXIAN Telecom.
The deal provides Yas with control over Wananchi’s network, which currently connects more than one million homes across the region.
In Kenya, Wananchi group has maintained the third position in the ISP market, accounting for a 12.7% share. The broadband sector in the country has been driven by rapid adoption of fibre and increasing enterprise digitalisation, creating pressure on providers to expand capacity and reduce service bottlenecks.
The acquisition allows Yas to consolidate its position in these high-demand areas and scale enterprise services such as Software-Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN) and cloud connectivity.
AXIAN Telecom operates in 11 African markets and has unified its mobile networks under the Yas brand and its fintech operations under Mixx by Yas, aiming to streamline services and expand its pan-African footprint.