Strive Masiyiwa, Group Executive Chairman of Econet Global, said the company's subsidiary Liquid Telecom has laid fibre in South Sudan's capital Juba - the first time this network infrastructure is available in the country.

A message posted by Masiyiwa on his Facebook page on Thursday 20 February 2020 read: "Liquid began its service South Sudan this morning at 8 am. I plan to do Juba's first Town Hall meeting beamed live by broadband before the end of next month."

South Sudan will link to Liquid Telecom's network across the East Africa region including Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, United Republic of Tanzania, and the Republic of Uganda.

This will potentially connect up to 300 million people and is expected to stimulate cross-border investment and trade.

It represents the first phase of the agreement signed between the Government of South Sudan's National Communication Authority and Liquid Telecom which includes a 300km fibre backbone operating from the border of Uganda to Juba.

The network will be expanded to other cities in subsequent phases, in time supporting the country's 13 million citizens.

"We built a 200km link from Uganda's border. It was tough because of mines and booby traps," Masiyiwa said.

Liquid currently has over 75,000 of Fibre networks running through 18 countries. This includes cables from Cape Town to Cairo, and from Port Sudan to Cameroon and Nigeria, with one more cable running from Cape Town to Kinshasa set for commissioning later this year.

The Econet Group executive is looking to expand the fibre service and said: "I'm now planning a trip to Eritrea, the last country with no broadband high-speed internet".