The US$500 million expansion is to be financed by parent company Liquid Intelligent Technologies. It will see the interconnected, cloud- and carrier neutral facilities spread across 10 countries, including Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt. ADC said it is the continent’s largest-ever data centre expansion plan.
Stephane Duproz, Africa Data Centres' CEO said: “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.”
Duproz said land acquisition is ongoing and that the plan is "to roll-out very quickly" to meet the needs of customers. ADC is seeing strong demand for services from SMEs, as well as players in the banking and fintech sectors, insurance and medical organisations, the public sector, hyperscale cloud providers and content providers.
These industries, Duproz said, are highly sensitive to data speed, security, guaranteed uptime and are exacting when it comes to reliability and trust in their providers.
The new facilities will also bring new jobs in their localities.
On this Duproz said: "Job creation is something we are passionate about at Africa Data Centres and the equation is a simple one: digitisation boosts economies, and successful digitisation requires data centres. 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.”
However, not all the facilities will be new builds. ADC has already started to implement its roadmap, reporting that the construction of both new facilities and the expansion of existing facilities are underway.
Duproz added: “We are Africa’s largest network of data centres – and we are growing perpetually. All of our facilities across the continent will remain interconnected, allowing our tenants to take advantage of our vast footprint. Furthermore, we guarantee carrier-neutrality – meaning our tenants benefit from competition, redundancy and reliability. And, perhaps most importantly, is our commitment to sustainable, clean builds. We invest heavily in innovative grey-water systems, waste disposal and renewable energy sources, ensuring our carbon footprint is drastically reduced, our reliability is uncontested and while building economies, we’re aiding the environment.”
