KENYA – Africa Data Centres, a leading carrier-neutral co-location data centre provider, has announced it will be developing two further facilities in Nairobi.
The company has begun the development of a second data centre of up to 20MW of IT load and is securing land for a third facility.
This represents an investment of more than US$200 million and will double the country’s data centre capacity. This will develop Kenya as a key digital hub, providing reliable digital infrastructure needs.
“Africa Data Centres currently has the leading carrier-neutral data center in Nairobi and East Africa as a whole,” said Stephane Duproz, CEO of Africa Data Centres.
“We have the most dynamic ecosystem, in terms of the largest number of connectivity providers on-site in the region, as well as the strongest leadership in the enterprise sector and financial services in particular.”
Nairobi’s East Africa Data Centre (EADC) was hailed as East Africa’s largest data center when it was opened by Liquid Telecom (now Liquid Intelligent Technologies) in 2013.
The facility offered 500 sqm (5,382 sq ft) of whitespace and room for 160 racks per floor across four stories; it was expanded to add another 500 sqm of white space in 2018. Liquid launched ADC in 2018.
As well as Nairobi, ADC currently has or is developing data centers in Lagos, Nigeria; Lomé, Togo; and Samrand and Midrand, South Africa. In September the company announced a US$500 million goal to build 10 data centers across 10 African countries over the next two years.
The company plans to double its footprint and build facilities in the likes of Morocco, Tunisia, and Egypt.
“Kenya is one of the top data center markets in Africa and is widely viewed as the gateway to the East African region,” added Duproz.
“There has been a dramatic increase in the adoption of digital services, and the move from on-premises to colocation and managed facilities will be at the vanguard of data center development in the years to come.”
Recently IFC announced it has expanded its partnership with Liquid Intelligent Technologies; taking its equity and debt investments in the company to US$250 million in order to support the company’s data center expansions in Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa through Africa Data Centres.
This week ADC and Liquid’s parent company Econet announced the formation of a new company to hold a number of its digital businesses.
ADC previously sat underneath Liquid Intelligent Technologies, but Econet this week announced the formation of a new company, Cassava Technologies, that will hold a number of its business units including both the data center firm and the telco.
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