Cassava Technologies has pledged R4.5-billion in investment in South Africa through its business units, Liquid Intelligent Technologies, Africa Data Centres and Distributed Power Africa.

The investment pledge comprises key projects, including the expansion of Liquid Intelligent Technologies' fibre network, the extension of Africa Data Centres' capacity and footprint, as well as enhanced cloud and cybersecurity capacity and the deployment of clean, renewable energy by Distributed Power Africa in South Africa.

Cassava, which made the pledge during the fifth South Africa Investment Conference (SAIC), joins several others targeting investments into global business services, information and communication technology (ICT) and digital services across South Africa over the next five years.

Including Cassava’s investment, a total of eight companies have pledged a collective R81.056-billion in support of President Cyril Ramaphosa's initiative to drive investment into South Africa.

According to SAIC, Vodacom, Telkom and Rain have pledged a respective R60-billion, R5.972-billion and R4-billion, while Teraco pledged R2-billion, Moove R284-million, SA Taxi R500-million and Equinix R3.8-billion.

South Africa accounts for the largest proportion of Africa's industrial gross domestic product with a sophisticated and growing $6.75-billion ICT sector, which is one of the continent’s most investment-attractive and growth-bound industries, says Cassava Technologies president and group CEO Hardy Pemhiwa.

The World Bank estimates that South Africa's Internet penetration rate has doubled over the last decade to 70%, while the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa reports that the national population coverage for fourth-generation/long-term evolution stood at 97.7% in 2021, placing the nation years ahead of its peers in sub-Saharan Africa, he says.

“Through Cassava’s investment, which has operations in Africa, the Middle East, Europe, the US and Latin America, it will continue to bring internationally recognised services and products to South Africa through the group's renewable energy, cloud and cybersecurity, data centres and broadband connectivity business units,” Pemhiwa outlines.

“The country's unique combination of highly developed first-world economic infrastructure and a stable macro-economic environment affords businesses like ours a conducive investment environment in which we can partner with government to drive economic development and create jobs.”

He says that the company’s investments will contribute towards positioning South Africa as an attractive investment destination and enable greater inclusion of all South Africans, consistent with Cassava's vision of a “digitally connected future that leaves no African behind”.

During the conference on Thursday, Ramaphosa unveiled a new investment target of R2-trillion for the five-year period to 2028 and reported having received R1.51-trillion in pledges from domestic and international investors covering a range of activities, from telecoms, mining and manufacturing, to economic and social infrastructure, thereby exceeding the R1.2-trillion five-year target set in 2018.