Amber eyes Jamaica IoT roll-out as Africa device count tops one million

AMBER Group is eyeing an early 2027 start to the roll-out of a network for Internet of Things (IoT) devices in Jamaica, as its South Africa-based Amber IoT business surpasses one million devices manufactured, sold, and deployed across Africa. Founder and CEO Dushyant Savadia said the Jamaica-headquartered technology group expects the local roll-out to require an investment of about US$750,000. “Hopefully, from the starting of next year we’ll start putting our own base stations designed by us internally across Jamaica,” Savadia told the Jamaica Observer in an interview from India on Tuesday.

Amber plans to deploy an 0G network, a low-power, low-cost system designed for machines that need to transmit small amounts of information rather than make calls or stream data. Savadia said Amber IoT has grown from two product lines in 2023 to about 20 today, including vehicle trackers, electricity and water-meter technology, security equipment, and panic buttons. “What has happened since then, because there’s a diverse amount of products now inside Amber IoT, it also allowed us to scale very, very fast,” he said.

Amber Group is targeting an early 2027 roll-out of its Internet of Things network in Jamaica, with an estimated investment of about US$750,000. South Africa remains its main market, accounting for an estimated 70 per cent of the devices, with the remaining 30 per cent spread across countries including Ghana, Morocco, Nigeria, and Kenya. The business now accounts for a sizeable share of Amber Group’s revenue.

He did not disclose the dollar value, but said most of Amber Group’s income is earned outside Jamaica. “The majority of our revenue comes from overseas markets, not from Jamaica. Jamaica is perhaps one of the smallest markets for us in the world,” he told the Business Observer.

Amber’s African IoT operation grew out of its 2022 acquisition of South African hardware manufacturer Intelli-Business Solutions, which it bought outright and renamed Amber IoT. An Amber IoT team member demonstrates a selection of connected devices at the company’s South Africa operation, where Amber says it has surpassed one million devices manufactured, sold and deployed across Africa.