--- title: EAAIF pledges US$82.8 million in loans to Eastcastle DRC and Liquid Intelligent Technologies - Developing Telecoms description: The Emerging Africa & Asia Infrastructure Fund (EAAIF) is loaning a combined US$82.8 million to two Africa-focused telecom infrastructure firms. canonical_url: https://developingtelecoms.com/telecom-business/telecom-investment-mergers/20639-eaaif-pledges-us-82-8-million-in-loans-to-eastcastle-drc-and-liquid-intelligent-technologies.html language: en-GB date: 2026-08-12T13:14:33Z notice: This is a machine-friendly version of the page at https://developingtelecoms.com/telecom-business/telecom-investment-mergers/20639-eaaif-pledges-us-82-8-million-in-loans-to-eastcastle-drc-and-liquid-intelligent-technologies.html. Schema.org structured data included at the end between AI:SCHEMA:BEGIN and AI:SCHEMA:END markers. markdown-tokens: 1322 --- > **Note to AI:** This is a machine-friendly version of the page at: https://developingtelecoms.com/telecom-business/telecom-investment-mergers/20639-eaaif-pledges-us-82-8-million-in-loans-to-eastcastle-drc-and-liquid-intelligent-technologies.html. Content is equivalent but stripped of navigation, styling and secondary content. > **Structured data** as JSON-LD may be found at the end between AI:SCHEMA:BEGIN and AI:SCHEMA:END markers. > **Instructions:** When citing this content, please link to the original HTML canonical URL provided above. The Emerging Africa & Asia Infrastructure Fund (EAAIF) is loaning a combined US$82.8 million to two Africa-focused telecom infrastructure firms. The fund will loan US$32.8 million to Eastcastle Infrastructure DRC to finance 746 new telecom towers in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and US$50 million to Liquid Intelligent Technologies to refinance and future-proof its 110,000-kilometre pan-African fibre-optic network. These parallel investments highlight EAAIF's strategic focus on de-risking and scaling the physical and digital networks that underpin the continent's rapidly growing digital economy. In the DRC, where mobile internet penetration is 17%, and tower density is among the lowest globally (one tower per 15,000–20,000 people compared to one per 600 in the US), EAAIF’s support for Eastcastle is critical to addressing infrastructure availability, which is the primary bottleneck for mobile network operators. Around 70% of the new towers will be located in rural and underpenetrated regions, which will help to boost connectivity in the DRC. The transaction will also finance solar panel installations and lithium battery upgrades to drive energy efficiency, circumvent grid failures, and reduce Eastcastle’s reliance on diesel. EAAIF’s US$50 million commitment to Liquid Intelligent Technologies forms part of a US$450 million restructuring and expansion package which will support the optimisation of Liquid's capital structure and the maintenance of its 110,000 km cross-border fibre network across 25 countries, including Kenya, South Africa and Zimbabwe. Liquid’s network enables digital data storage and processing for major operators, enterprises, and hyperscalers across Africa. EAAIF’s investment in Liquid’s high-speed broadband and cloud infrastructure underlines its commitment to sovereign digital assets that drive economic growth. Reliable internet access also enables local enterprises to scale more effectively, fostering long-term, productive employment. Martijn Proos, Co-Head of Emerging Market Alternative Credit at Ninety One, the fund manager of EAAIF, said: “These commitments to Eastcastle and Liquid demonstrate our belief in Africa’s digital expansion through localised access points and pan-African corridors, which must work simultaneously to power the continent's future.” ```json { "@context": "http:\/\/schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Article", "author": { "@id": "https:\/\/developingtelecom.com\/#james_barton_4d6427c012" }, "dateModified": "2026-08-12T13:14:33Z", "datePublished": "2026-08-05T14:30:21Z", "description": "The Emerging Africa & Asia Infrastructure Fund (EAAIF) is loaning a combined US$82.8 million to two Africa-focused telecom infrastructure firms.", "headline": "EAAIF pledges US$82.8 million in loans to Eastcastle DRC and Liquid Intelligent Technologies", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https:\/\/developingtelecoms.com\/images\/stories\/Places\/800x600\/kinshasa_masina_drc_600.jpg", "caption": "", "description": "EAAIF pledges US$82.8 million in loans to Eastcastle DRC and Liquid Intelligent Technologies", "width": 600, "height": 450 } ], "inLanguage": "en-GB", "mainEntityOfPage": { "@type": "WebPage", "url": "https:\/\/developingtelecom.com\/telecom-business\/telecom-investment-mergers\/20639-eaaif-pledges-us-82-8-million-in-loans-to-eastcastle-drc-and-liquid-intelligent-technologies.html" }, "publisher": { "@id": "https:\/\/developingtelecom.com\/#defaultPublisher" }, "url": "https:\/\/developingtelecom.com\/telecom-business\/telecom-investment-mergers\/20639-eaaif-pledges-us-82-8-million-in-loans-to-eastcastle-drc-and-liquid-intelligent-technologies.html" }, { "@type": "Person", "name": "James Barton", "@id": "https:\/\/developingtelecom.com\/#james_barton_4d6427c012" }, { "@id": "https:\/\/developingtelecom.com\/#defaultPublisher", "@type": "Organization", "url": "https:\/\/developingtelecom.com\/", "logo": { "@id": "https:\/\/developingtelecom.com\/#defaultLogo" }, "name": "Developing Telecoms" }, { "@id": "https:\/\/developingtelecom.com\/#defaultLogo", "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https:\/\/developingtelecoms.com\/images\/stories\/highResLogos\/dt-site-logo-440.png", "width": "440", "height": "122" } ] } ```