As digital transformation accelerates in Africa, there is an upsurge in investment in the African data center market. Recently, Onix Data Centers launched its second West African data center in Dakar, Senegal. 

Nigerian tier 3 neutral data center operator Rack Center has announced that it plans to construct a new facility in Ikeja, Lagos State. Called Rack Center LGS 2, the new infrastructure will cover an area of ​​20,000 m2 — and will be equipped with a computing capacity of 12 MW; which will increase the company’s net leasable space to 3,240 m2 — with total computing power of 13.5 MW.

According to the company, this initiative is part of its ambition to increase its capacity tenfold in order to meet the growing demand for data colocation, interconnection and cloud in West Africa. In September 2020, the company announced a 100 million investment program for this purpose. In 2021, it doubled its capacity to 1.5 MW and added 600 m2 — of white space.

This investment comes amid growing investment in Africa to fill the data center capacity gap as digital transformation accelerates across the continent. According to the “Data Centers in Africa” report produced by Oxford Business Group in partnership with Africa Data Centers Association (ADCA), the entire continent needs 700 facilities and 1,000 MW of computing capacity to meet demand and reach the level of South Africa, market leader.

“  The Lagos campus data center has become the largest carrier- and cloud-neutral digital infrastructure center in West Africa, and with this expansion, we intend to continue to grow our thriving ecosystem.  Ezekiel Egboye (photo), Chief Operating Officer of Rack Centre.

Source: Agence Ecofin