On Thursday, 18th of May, 2023, Africa Data Centers announced its intention to commence construction of a new data center facility on its newly acquired land. The facility will be located on a part of the former Trade Fair showgrounds site in the Central Business District of Accra, Ghana. The data centre, whose first phase is set to be complete in 12 months, will have an initial capacity of 10 MW, capable of increasing to 30 MW based on demand. Once complete, it will increase Accra’s data center count to six. The most prominent recent addition includes the 104-rack MainOne (MDX-I) data center facility located in Apollonia City, Ghana completed in March 2021 and built in conformity with TIA 942 and Uptime Tier III.

Being a key part of digital advancement for countries to spur economic growth, there is a lot of excitement surrounding the construction of this facility in Accra, which will be one of the biggest in Africa. Nana Akufo-Addo, President of Ghana expressed his delight in a statement, saying, “The establishment of Africa Data Centre’s new 10MW data centre, in the heart of Accra, is a significant step towards bridging the infrastructure gap, and developing further our digital economy. This investment and the Government’s drive at digitising all sectors of the economy will enable us increase our capacity to access digital services, and help even more to attract foreign direct investment into our economy.”

 

Africa Data Centres Facility in Lagos, Nigeria

 

The Growth of Data Centres in Africa is Propelled by Existing Demand

Africa Data Centers is a part of the Cassava Technologies group of companies and the foremost network of interconnected, carrier- and cloud-neutral data centre facilities in Africa. According to the data that Estate Intel tracks, they are responsible for 16.67% of the total stock of data centers in Lagos, joint-first with Acronis. In the past year, they’ve made significant progress in establishing their blueprint across Africa by announcing construction plans in Kigali, Rwanda and breaking ground for a new facility in South Africa. Furthermore, in collaboration with the United States International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), they have further plans to build facilities in Africa’s major economic hubs including: Angola, Morocco, Ivory Coast, South Africa, Egypt, Zambia, Kenya, Senegal and Rwanda. 

The continued investment into data centres in Africa is key for driving economic growth and creating an attractive ecosystem for technology companies. The advancement into the digital age and growth of the African tech sector has placed a high demand on the establishment of data centres within the continent to enable a higher quality of service delivery. By having data centres located within the continent, companies can expect:

• Faster transmission of data
• Lower latency

 

Africa Data Centres Facility in Cape Town, South Africa

 

In addition, as highlighted in a previous note, the demand for data centres is also rising due to rapid internet penetration and the growth of internet users within the continent, which are some of the factors driving investor interest. Currently, major companies such as Estate Intel host their data in facilities based in Europe and North America. However, the benefits associated with hosting in a continental facility are too good to ignore and will cause a shift in data hosting preferences if world-class and standardized options are provided.

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