From Namibian start-up to regional powerhouse: the rapid rise of Paratus

--:--
Paratus Group is rapidly emerging as a major player in the telecommunications industry in Southern Africa. But who’s behind Paratus, and what’s its history?
From landing Google’s Equiano subsea cable in Swakopmund and building a new fibre route between South Africa and Namibia – providing a new data corridor between Gauteng and the world – to working with Meta Platforms to wire up Zambia and building expansive satellite ground stations, the Namibian-born group has its eyes firmly set on becoming a significant telecoms player in the region.
In this episode of the TechCentral Show (TCS), TechCentral editor Duncan McLeod chats to Paratus Group chief commercial officer Martin Cox about the company’s origins (although founded in Namibia, it cut its teeth in Angola), its current footprint and its future growth plans.
Among other topics, Cox discusses:
• The impact of the recent subsea cable breaks in West Africa and the role of diverse routes in reducing the impact;
• Paratus’s new fibre route from Swakopmund to Johannesburg, which runs through Botswana – its significance and what was involved in its construction;
• The group’s footprint in South Africa, including its new satellite ground station in Irene, near Pretoria; and
• Paratus’s culture, and why its management team is happiest in “the trenches”; and
• Whether a listing for Paratus Group could be on the cards at some point (its Namibian operation is already listed in Windhoek).
Don’t miss the discussion!
21 Mar 5AM English South Africa Technology · Business

Other recent episodes

Sandile Dube on Equinix and South Africa’s data centre boom

Nasdaq-listed Equinix has completed construction of the first phase of a new data centre in Johannesburg, part of a R7.5-billion commitment to building cloud infrastructure in South Africa and the rest of the continent over the next five years. The company’s South African MD, Sandile Dube – a former country…
23 Oct 7AM 21 min

Lesaka’s Lincoln Mali on the fintech opportunity in South Africa

Lincoln Mali has been at the helm of Lesaka Technologies Southern Africa, a fintech with a sizeable footprint in Southern Africa’s informal markets, since 2021. One of his main tasks has been to turn the company’s finances around by reigning in business units that were haemorrhaging cash in the past…
23 Oct 3AM 22 min

The Solly Malatsi interview - BEE, SOEs and Starlink

Communications minister Solly Malatsi, a DA MP and the first non-ANC politician to hold the key technology portfolio in the democratic era, has been in the job for three months – sufficient time to get a broad handle on the big issues. In this first interview with the TechCentral Show,…
9 Oct 8AM 43 min

Donald Valoyi: South African on-demand e-commerce pioneer

Donald Valoyi saw the potential market for on-demand grocery delivery in South Africa early on, and his company Zulzi was a pioneer in the space. It even went on to help Shoprite Holdings launch the Checkers Sixty60 app. Zulzi was founded in 2013 as an “aggregator” of various shopping outlets…
2 Oct 4AM 48 min

Bruce Mellado on the tech-led fight against air pollution in South Africa

South African scientists have launched a cost-effective air-quality monitoring system built using internet of things and artificial intelligence technologies. Bruce Mellado, professor of particle physics and director of the Institute for Collider Particle Physics at Wits University, is one of the key people behind the new initiative, which is aimed…
18 Sep 8AM 35 min