Carrier-neutral co-location data centre provider Africa Data Centres is planning to inject $500-million to deploy a “web” of data centres across Africa.

The investment will enable the company to more than double its footprint on the continent and boost digital transformation, starting in Johannesburg, South Africa.

After launching the new 10 MW, 8 000 m2 JHB1 data centre at its Midrand campus, Africa Data Centres is expanding its capacity in Johannesburg to 100 MW of information technology load across its hyperscale and enterprise-focused data centres at Midrand, as well as its other existing campus in Samrand, where a deployment of 30 MW is planned.

The company is also in the process of securing land for a third location to build the largest data centre campus on the continent.

This is a step forward in Africa Data Centres’ expansion plans, announced in September, which Africa Data Centres CEO Stephane Duproz says are the most ambitious data centre expansion plans Africa “has ever witnessed”.

“Africa Data Centres’ Johannesburg facilities form an integral part of the expansion, as South Africa is one of the key data centre markets in Africa and a gateway for smaller neighbouring markets,” Duproz comments.

“Our purpose is to deploy, all over the continent, a web of data centres.”

The company aims to build ten hyperscale data centres across Africa, including the top five data centre markets in Africa, namely South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Morocco and Egypt, over the next two years.

“We have already started to acquire land in these countries and plan to roll out, very quickly, to meet the needs of our existing and new customers. This is just the beginning for us,” Duproz says.

The expansion is being funded through new equity and facilities from leading development finance institutions and multilateral organisations provided to Africa Data Centres’ parent company, Liquid Intelligent Technologies.

“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,” explains Duproz.

The continuous deployment of capital-intensive infrastructure projects will have pivotal knock-on effects for the communities and economies served and multinational organisations will be able to confidently enter those markets, knowing their future growth is assured and they have access to open carrier systems to the rest of the continent, he adds.

“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 information technology services have on the public sector, from healthcare to transport infrastructure.”

Benefiting from the expansion are sectors such as banking, fintech, insurance and medical organisations, as well as the public sector, hyperscale cloud providers and content providers, which are all “highly sensitive” to data speed, security and guaranteed uptime and are exacting when it comes to reliability and trust in their providers, Duproz continues.

“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.”

Duproz concludes.