International technology policy firm Access Partnership and AfriTrade Consulting Group have formed an East African alliance aimed at helping digital infrastructure companies navigate licensing and regulatory requirements as they enter Kenya and the wider regional market.
The partnership brings together Access Partnership’s international expertise in satellite, spectrum and connectivity regulation with AfriTrade’s regional regulatory and project-development experience.
The two firms will provide support to operators and investors across the project lifecycle, from market strategy and licensing to regulatory approvals and eventual operations.
The alliance comes as Kenya continues to attract investment in data centres, subsea cables, satellite connectivity and other digital infrastructure, with the country positioning itself as a regional technology and connectivity hub.
While major infrastructure projects often attract attention when investments are announced, the regulatory processes required to move them from proposals to operational facilities can be complex.
Depending on the technology involved, projects may require telecommunications licences, spectrum authorisations, regulatory approvals, satellite gateway permissions, cable landing rights and other clearances.
The growing interconnection between digital infrastructure projects can also mean that a single investment cuts across several regulatory areas.
Data centres, for example, underpin cloud computing, financial services and artificial intelligence, while subsea cables connect international networks to domestic telecommunications infrastructure. Satellite technologies are meanwhile creating new models for delivering connectivity, particularly in areas where conventional infrastructure remains limited.
The alliance said Kenya’s digital infrastructure ambitions will therefore depend not only on attracting capital and constructing infrastructure, but also on the ability of the regulatory framework to respond to rapidly evolving technologies.
It said stronger regulatory clarity should not be interpreted as a reduction in oversight, but rather as making requirements, institutional responsibilities and approval processes clearer to investors and operators.
For operators, greater clarity can provide better visibility on market-entry requirements, while investors can factor regulatory considerations into project planning at an earlier stage.
Regulators, meanwhile, face the challenge of building the technical capacity required to assess emerging technologies while safeguarding the public interest.
Andy Robb, Chief Space Officer at Access Partnership, said East Africa has the potential to become a major frontier technology market.
“East Africa has the geography, the demand and the policy ambition to become one of the most important frontier technology markets of the next decade,” Robb said.
He said operators and investors require support that can take projects from strategy to licensed operations without unnecessary delays.
“AfriTrade knows how things actually get done in Kenya and across the region. Together we can get new satellite, connectivity and digital infrastructure into market faster, and make sure the benefits land locally,” he said.
The alliance’s initial areas of focus will include satellite and telecommunications licensing, satellite gateways and ground stations, subsea cable landings and data centre approvals.
The partnership comes as competition intensifies among African countries to attract investment in digital infrastructure, cloud computing, artificial intelligence and next-generation connectivity.
For Kenya and the wider East Africa region, the firms said, the scale of investment will ultimately be measured not only by the number of infrastructure projects announced but also by how efficiently those projects navigate the regulatory process from investment proposal to licensed operation.
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