Sida provide grant to Support Regional and International Connectivity for Universities in Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda

02 February 2016

On 01 February 2016 UbuntuNet Alliance announced that a grant had been secured from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) to support connectivity for Universities in Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. This initiative fits well within Sida's focus on supporting research capacity in African programme countries.

The grant is very timely in the context of the launch of AfricaConnect 2 whereby the European Commission through DG DEVGO are co-funding 80% of the connectivity costs and the national governments the remaining 20% for UbuntuNet Alliance NREN Members.

The Sida grant will be applied to a 622Mbps link from Kampala to Kigali and Dar es Salaam with a link to the GÉANT, pan-European Research and Education Network. UbuntuNet Alliance have confirmed that this grant will be recognised as a contribution from RwEdNet (Rwanda), TERNET (Tanzania) and RENU (Uganda) towards the co-funding of AfricaConnect 2 for these three countries.