INTERNET service provider iBurst Africa is bidding for a licence in the vast Nigerian market and will know the outcome in a few weeks.

INTERNET service provider iBurst Africa is bidding for a licence in the vast Nigerian market and will know the outcome in a few weeks.

The company is looking to tap a growing African broadband market that is rising, powered by steady economic growth in most of the countries.

iBurst chairman Thami Mtshali said yesterday. "We have tendered. There is a huge market there [Nigeria] waiting to be unleashed."

Nigeria currently has a very limited broadband service and many people rely on slow dial-up connections to the Internet.

Mtshali said the firm has partnered with an unnamed Nigerian firm for the possible roll-out.

iBurst Africa is 86percent owned by Mtshali's Galela investment firm and 14percent by South Africa's Industrial Development Corporation. The company also operates in South Africa as iBurst, which is 24,9percent owned by Vodacom Group, 28percent by Galela and 38percent is held by the Levy Brothers consortium. - Reuters