Natalie

With the aim of providing better communications services for government and public institutions, reducing information exclusion in the country, and taking communications to the most remote areas of Angola, Infrasat began as a multi-sectoral project.

The project soon evolved into the first satellite business unit of Angola Telecom (inaugurated by the country’s President José Eduardo dos Santos in 2008) and is now an independent government-owned company responsible for managing all satellite service portfolios.

The company was faced with the challenge of making communications easily accessible to those in remote areas and partnering with mobile operators (with backhauling solutions) to expand its mobile service nationwide. It has, however, accomplished the initial aim of minimising information exclusion but the challenge of promoting improved and increased communication across the region – at lower cost – remains.

Infrasat is launching Angosat 1, the first Angolan satellite to enhance connectivity and promote economic and social development for the country. Being an exclusive reseller of Angosat 1, Infrasat is entering into a new and more innovative sphere, evolving from a regular ISP into an active government partner that promotes enhanced and affordable communication for businesses and individuals (from corporate solutions to rural telephony and digital TV infrastructure), while guaranteeing reliable and high-quality connections. This reinforces the firm’s role in the Angolan telecoms sector.

MISSION

• To provide products and services to enable communication; shorten distances; minimise the digital divide; actively contribute to the socio-economic development of Angola; and create communications solutions for the international market in Africa.
• To empower companies to use technology, and promote access to information and innovative products and services.

VISION

• To be recognised as a regional reference in satellite communication solutions.

VALUES
Accuracy and efficiency

• Compliance with all internal management processes for optimal and effective use of the available resources, thus ensuring the continued quality of service.
• Maintaining transparency in all relationships.

Quality

• Striving for continuous improvement, focusing on recruiting and training staff to better serve clients.

Innovation

• Keeping in line with technological developments in the sector; equipping staff to deal with changes in the market; and pioneering the implementation of innovative solutions to ensure greater efficiency in service delivery and cost rationalisation.

Responsibility 

• Always acting with customer orientation and responsibility to ensure the safeguarding of the interests of clients, and focusing on the benefits and impact that actions bring to all stakeholders, from employees to society.

WHY INFRASAT
High performance
Infrasat has state-of-the-art technology and hubs, ensuring high-performance fees and the full satisfaction of our customers.

The company is also recognised for its high-quality service delivery and service level agreements, and was acknowledged as Backhauling Provider of the Year in 2014 at Satcom Africa.

Inclusive technology
Infrasat communicates expeditiously and with the best technology to reach the most remote corners of the country and ensure the inclusion of all Angolan people in the global village.

Infrasat has more than 650 VSat stations nationwide. In places with no electricity, stations are powered by solar panels – known as liga-liga. It makes rural telephony and internet access possible through scratch cards, which cost the public below US$1 for five minutes.

Reliability and safety
No matter where you are, Infrasat’s solutions provide access to the transmission and reception of data with safety and reliability.

CORPORATE, PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND OPERATORS SOLUTIONS
Large enterprises, public administration and telecoms operators need versatile and secure solutions. Infrasat provides data communication and voice services via satellite, oriented to the optimisation of existing processes in your company in order to reduce costs and assist with operational improvements.

Data transport solutions
Currently almost all distance communication is performed in digital mode. The advantages of this are many and diverse. Integration with IT systems is perhaps one of the reasons more easily understood because it corresponds to the reality of current times.

Satellite transmission allows remote areas, often not covered by communication infrastructure, to be covered by data transmission networks, voice and image. Inclusion allows for the effective economic and social development of the population.

The information transport via satellite services has applications in various sectors of the economy.

TrunkSat
This service offers data transmission at high speed with optimised transmission, ensuring better relation between costs and benefits. Designed for transmission of commercial or voice data, TrunkSat ensures availability and quality for the growth of any organisation.

TrunkSat Pro
TrunkSat Pro has been designed for critical applications that have stringent availability requirements and high transmission rates. The service provides you with the high performance essential for applications that require convergence of voice, video and data transmission solutions.

Data access solutions
Access to the internet via satellite can be a viable solution in the absence of a DSL connection, or via cable modem or when planning a performance service higher than dial-up access.

It is a solution that requires no phone line or cable network – just a satellite reflector for bi-directional communications. The advantages are immediate access, great coverage and absence of geographical barriers. In a multicasting environment, the satellite also presents advantages over optical fibre.

Infrasat offers you three access solutions via satellite depending on your needs:

• Netsat: Internet access with C or Ku band speeds, shared with 1:4 contentions.
• Netsat Pro: Internet service via satellite for applications that need access to high performance, dedicated to containment 1:1 in C band.
• Phonesat: Communication via the classic telephone network through numbers with the prefix 277 – independent from the traditional Angola Telecom landline.

Transportable solutions
The transmission and access to satellite data does not have to be restricted to a fixed point. In many business sectors, there is the need to maintain the data transmission. The mining industry, or civil construction industry, needs transmission solutions and versatile data reception, high mobility and to be available even in places hard to reach.

With this in mind, Infrasat developed transportable solutions for data communication via satellite, with a fleet of vehicles equipped to meet the most demanding needs of information exchange.

Automobile satellite transmission
Satellite transmission in C or Ku band in versatile autonomous cars is easy to set up and capable of responding to the most demanding needs of communication, regardless of the location where it is required.

NEW CHALLENGES
Infrasat wants to be recognised as a high-quality regional satellite service provider, ensuring reliable and cost-effective communications and better interconnections between Europe and Africa. The company is looking forward to expanding its services into border countries, specifically sub-Saharan states and all nations within the coverage of our satellite.

REMARKABLE PROJECTS 
ID card project
In partnership with the Ministry of Justice, it interconnects different stations nationwide and allows a person to have an ID card within hours.

Schools and universities internet access
The project roll-out provided internet and WiFi services to schools and universities in the country.

Rural telephony and internet access
More than 650 rural telephony stations with alternative energy in remote areas.

GSM backhauling
Expanding mobile coverage nationwide with the two local mobile operators.

Elections
Designing and implementing electoral processes, communications network for rural areas.

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
Infrasat has sponsored various initiatives and contributed to programmes to provide the underprivileged with basic goods and access to arts and culture. The firm has also made donations to various hospitals in the country.

Tel: +244 222 008 502/504
Fax: +244 222 213 005
 www.infrasat.net

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Established in 1998 in Gaborone, Botswana, Letshego Holdings Limited has been listed on the Botswana Stock Exchange since 2002. Today, we are the largest indigenous company on the Botswana Stock Exchange with more than half of our shareholders being local investors.

With a proudly Botswanan heritage as well as a dedicated and committed team of people from across Africa, we have enjoyed consistent growth for almost two decades and expanded our footprint across the continent.

We are now established in Botswana, Kenya, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Swaziland, Tanzania and Uganda – with a growing financial inclusion agenda that is aligned to supporting local government initiatives. The provision of consumer finance to our customers – primarily government employees through the deduction at source model – remains our core business.

Letshego has grown from humble beginnings as a company employing less than 30 people in a small office in Gaborone to being Botswana’s largest indigenous group (by market capitalisation) listed on the Botswana Stock Exchange. Our inclusive finance strategy has steered our expansion beyond our borders.

As of 2015, and through a consistent focus on solving our customers’ needs in the simplest, most appropriate and accessible way, Letshego has grown to provide finance to 300 000 borrowers and offer savings capability to in excess of 100 000 depositors across the continent. This growth in size of operations has brought with it a diversity of talents, strengths, expertise and communities that make up our African heritage. We employ 2 300 employees representing 20 nationalities across 10 countries. As such, Letshego embraces our identity as a pan-African financial services provider.

The firm’s ambition is to become Africa’s leading inclusive finance group. Giving our customers access to loans that they can use for agribusiness, education, health, housing, and micro and small businesses signifies how we deliver inclusive finance and encourage productive use of our solutions. These solutions are offered through innovative access points or channels that give our customers access to our services anytime, anywhere.

Additionally, the ability to save for families, for education and for the future, as well as to pay and be paid safely and securely, is not available to many customers in the low- to middle-income earning segments of Africa. We have recognised the need to provide simple, appropriate and affordable solutions for our customers to allow them to pay bills and send and receive money. We continue to explore and develop innovative ways to make this possible across a broader footprint.

Innovation underpins our inclusive finance agenda, combined with a strong focus on customer experience. These themes – in combination with our commitment to improving lives – ensure that we are able to sustainably deliver strong growth, performance and returns for our shareholders.

Letshego launched its agency banking model in Mozambique, with the highlight being the LetsGo BlueBox model, which will allow an individual to open a basic transactional deposit account in remote areas via an agent’s smartphone or tablet. Also – in time – agents will provide additional services including deposit taking and withdrawals (cash-in/cash-out services).

The LetsGo BlueBox will also bring with it a number of features, including a bluetooth printer to provide customers with printed receipts/statements, a charging facility and torchlight, as well as financial education aids on the agent device and distribution to agent customers. In effect, the LetsGo BlueBox has the capability to take full-scope financial services to the customer. As such, this innovation aims to eliminate barriers for those in rural locations and help them join the financial ecosystem.

Letshego’s agency banking model is designed to strengthen the provision of inclusive financial services in rural areas and to those in various segments (formal, informal and micro and small entrepreneurs) that are either ignored or underserved by mainstream banks and other existing financial service providers. The LetsGo BlueBox incorporates eco-friendly practices in an affordable manner.

We celebrate 18 years of improving the lives of our customers, and in turn improving communities that we call home. Our customers have now gained access to participate financially and actively in the economy through our solutions.

Letshego remains committed to helping the rural and underserved populations in every country we do business in, as our solutions impact on the members of our societies whose needs are, more often than not, overlooked.

This is especially so when it comes to gaining access to financing for education, health, housing and businesses – which in turn provide customers with dignity. Through-out our journey, we strive to significantly shift the narrative by improving lives through our services that are based on driving greater financial inclusion and therefore stimulating development.

We are humbled by and proud of our invaluable niche that has improved lives by servicing more than hundreds of thousands customers, which in turn has had a positive impact on their families and communities. Through our assistance to the underserved, we are grateful to have contributed towards Africa’s development.

To all our partners, customers, staff and other stakeholders we say: ‘Together, let’s improve life.’

Letshego Place, 22 Khama Crescent,
Gaborone, Botswana
Tel: +267 364 3000
Fax: +267 319 0418
Email: [email protected]
www.letshego.com

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