Africa Data Centres, a subsidiary of Liquid Intelligent Technologies, today announced its plan to build 10 hyperscale, cloud- and carrier-neutral data centers across the African continent through a $500m investment program. Specifically, over the next two years, the company plans to add 10 hyperscale data centers in 10 countries in Africa to its portfolio, including in the North African nations of Morocco, Tunisia, and Egypt.
Liquid Intelligent Technologies, the parent company of Africa Data Centres, will finance the data center deployment through a combination of debt and equity, which it has received from development finance institutions and multilateral organizations.
Hyperscale Data Center Build-Out – Africa Data Centres
Africa Data Centres’ expansion of 10 hyperscale facilities will more than double its footprint on the continent. To this end, the company has already begun to acquire land in its 10 targeted countries in Africa. Further, the company is underway on the construction of both new facilities and expansion of its existing facilities.
All of Africa Data Centres’ facilities across the African continent will be interconnected, allowing tenants to leverage the company’s footprint.
Customers
Africa Data Centres is targeting cloud service providers, content companies, multinational corporations (MNCs), local enterprises, and the public sector. Specifically, the company notes a focus on the industries of healthcare, transport infrastructure, and financial services (i.e., banks, fintech, and insurance).
Overall, Africa Data Centres’ value proposition is that it allows these customers to enter a particular market, while having access to carrier-neutral systems that are open to the rest of the African continent.
Data Center Portfolio – Existing
Presently, Africa Data Centres operates five facilities in Johannesburg, South Africa; Cape Town, South Africa; Nairobi, Kenya; and Lagos, Nigeria. Below is a breakdown of Africa Data Centres’ current portfolio, which comprises a total of 50+ megawatts of IT load:
- JHB1 Midrand (Johannesburg): 8 data halls with 14.5 megawatts of IT load across 96.9k sqft (9.0k sqm) of white space
- JHB2 Samrand (Johannesburg): 4 data halls with 20 megawatts of IT load across 64.6k sqft (6.0k sqm) of white space. Note, this IT load assumes the facility is fully built-out
- CPT1 (Cape Town): 3 data halls with 9 megawatts of IT load across 29.0k sqft (2.7k sqm) of white space. Note, this IT load assumes the facility is fully built-out. Additionally, CPT1 has a 24.8k sqft (2.3k sqm) planned expansion in 2021
- NBO1 (Nairobi): 3 data halls with 2.7 megawatts of IT load across 16.0k sqft (1.5k sqm) of white space. Additionally, NBO1 has a 0.9-megawatt and 5.4k sqft (0.5k sqm) planned expansion in 2022
- LOS1 (Lagos): 5 data halls with 5.7 megawatts of IT load across 21.5k sqft (2.0k sqm) of white space
Competitors
Carrier-neutral data center competitors in Africa include Teraco Data Environments (Berkshire Partners), Dimension Data (NTT Global Data Centers), MDXi (MainOne), Raxio Group, iColo, and IXAfrica.
