Largest-Ever Data Centre Expansion in Africa to Cost $500M Across 10 Countries
Largest-Ever Data Centre Expansion in Africa to Cost $500M Across 10 Countries
Written by Luis Monzon
Africa Data Centres, one of the continent’s leading carrier-neutral co-location data centre providers, has announced plans to build large hyperscale data centres throughout Africa, including the North African countries of Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt.
According to a statement today released from Africa Data Centres, the project will involve building 10 hyperscale data centres, in 10 countries, over the next two years – at a cost of more than $500-million. It is being funded through new equity and facilities from leading development finance institutions and multilateral organisations.
Africa Data Centres CEO, Stephane Duproz, explains that the finance for the roll-out has been provided by equity and loans to Africa Data Centres’ parent company, Liquid Intelligent Technologies, to fully fund the expansion.
The expansion is set to more than double Africa Data Centres’ already significant footprint on the continent.
“Examining Africa’s growth trajectory has allowed us to make investment decisions on new locations and confidently commit to expanding selected existing locations, resulting in the largest investment of its kind in history,” Duproz adds.
Continued Growth in Africa
“This commitment to Africa, through the continuous deployment of capital-intensive infrastructure projects, has pivotal knock-on effects for the communities and economies we serve,” says Duproz.
“All our data centres are world-class – built to the same, global market-leading standard and offer a reliable, resilient, secure and interconnected base.”
Duproz continues to explian that this “allows multinational organisations to confidently enter the market, knowing their future growth is assured and they have access to open carrier systems to the rest of the continent.”
“Additionally, without access to always-on, high-speed data centre facilities, the private sector cannot compete globally and will see slowed growth locally; equally important is the impact IT services have on the public sector – from healthcare to transport infrastructure,” he says.
Duproz says industries especially likely to be buoyed by Africa Data Centres’ expansion are the banking and growing fintech sectors, insurance and medical organisations, the public sector, hyperscale cloud providers and content providers.
These industries, he says, are highly sensitive to data speed, security, guaranteed uptime and are exacting when it comes to reliability and trust in their providers. The SME market too, he says, has found a significant opportunity for growth by plugging into the digital ecosystems that data centres provide.
“Our experience from across the continent is that the strategic value of data centres has both immediate and long-term effects on the economy and the communities they serve. Job creation is something we are passionate about at Africa Data Centres and the equation is a simple one: digitisation boosts economies, and successful digitisation requires data centres,” Duproz says.
“Data centres are digital ecosystems, acting as magnets to organisations – and as the digital ecosystem grows within the data centre, so the local economy grows in the real world. The impact of a data centre is long-lasting, with immediate job creation stemming from the physical build and enduring economic growth once operational.”
