Nerry Archar: Making a mark in African telecommunications

In 1993, Nerry Achar was a private contractor installing TV aerials in his neighbourhood. Twenty years later, he’s the CEO of Icon Telesec Services Limited, a leading telecommunications provider in East Africa.

After installing and offering supporting services for television aerials, a friend told Nerry that their company was looking for someone to install and administer a telecommunication network in Tanzania and Sudan.

With that, Icon Telesec Services Limited was born, and Nerry resigned from his job to focus on his new business.

It has been very difficult, like a one-man show. In 1996, I decided to employ two people; a field technician and an office administrator. I increased my staff to about seven in 2002, and now we are more than 60 with branches all over the country.”

Nerry’s company builds and implements telecommunication infrastructures, designs networks and also provides consultancy on telecommunications. He also provides content providers with networks from which they provide users with Internet services and data services that run through Icon Telesec Services’s infrastructures.

And business couldn’t be better for Nerry right now. From his humble beginnings, Nerry is hoping to average between 10 and 14 million Kenyan shillings a month gross turnover, receiving a guaranteed 6 million from Kenya Data Networks alone. But it’s not all work for Nerry and his company, who have identified social responsibility as a major area for them to give back to the community.

We give opportunities through our company to the needy youths who are not employed. Sport is another area; tangible things is giving them a home, then buying them sports equipment. We also watch them play and have even identified an empty shop to create a business, including a fitness centre.”

Nerry has come a long way from his humble beginnings and he has learnt to be an entrepreneur the hard way. But through sheer determination and hard work, he has become the only name you need to know when it comes to telecommunications in Kenya. Watch out, world – Nerry’s on his way to the top.