Serianu and Liquid Telecom form strategic partnership for cybersecurity offering

Kenyan consultancy Serianu has boosted its geographical reach through a strategic partnership with African telecommunications giant Liquid Telecom. The partnership will not only provide protection to clients at every stage of operations, but will also work to improve cybersecurity standards across the continent. 

Digital integration across Africa is still in its infancy. The continent is currently working towards providing everyone with internet access, projected to surpass 1 billion internet connections by 2022. The portion of daily activities conducted online today, however, remains fairly low at this stage.

Nevertheless, in larger economies such as Nigeria, there is a call for people to transition to the online sphere, particularly for financial transaction activity. The issue in such a scenario, particularly in today’s global environment, is that a relatively fresh digital population conducting financial activity online is likely to generate a considerable amount of risk.

In this context, IT and business services firm Serianu and pan-African network service provider Liquid Telecom have formed a valuable partnership. Liquid Telecom is equipped with infrastructure that stretches across a large portion of the continent — combined with an expertise in network provision — which makes it ideally equipped to cater to the growing online population in Africa.

Serianu, on the other hand, established the continent’s first ever Cyber Immersion Centre earlier this year, wherein the firm offers testing facilities for technology firms to evaluate their cybersecurity mechanisms. The innovative centre also provides training and educational facilities for new firms looking to develop a cybersecurity framework.

Together, the firms will work with clients across the banking and finance sector, along with clients in a number of others sectors, such as healthcare, manufacturing and hospitality. Their services will include the establishment of monitoring and response systems — leveraging Liquid Telecom’s data centres and network fibre, as well as Serianu’s cybersecurity and consulting capabilities.

For Serianu, the partnership offers access to the large radius of Liquid Telecom’s operations, which stretch across Eastern, Central, and Southern Africa — including Botswana, South Africa, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe. Liquid Telecom will make use of Serianu’s consulting infrastructure to expand the scope of its services.

Commenting on the partnership, Ben Roberts, Chief Technology Information Officer at Liquid Telecom said, "While digital transformation presents a vast opportunity for businesses today in Africa, the risk of cybercrime has never been greater. Through this partnership with Serianu, Liquid Telecom is not only ensuring that customers using our network and data centres facilities have access to the very latest cybersecurity solutions, but that we are also raising the overall level of cybersecurity standards and practices across the region."

CEO of Serianu, William Makatiani added, "Supporting local businesses and initiatives is one of the key pillars that both Serianu and Liquid Telecom share in common. Through this partnership, we will explore new ways to empower existing and future customers with quality, home-grown cybersecurity solutions that will help reduce the risk and cost from cybercrime across the region."