Johannesburg, 28 Feb 2022
Investment in data centres is gaining momentum across Africa, as enterprises make the move from infrastructure stakeholders and focus on their core business.
This is according to Finhai Munzara, CFO of Africa Data Centres, who was speaking at an executive round table discussion hosted by Africa Data Centres in Johannesburg this week.
With investment projected to grow from $2 billion in 2020 to $5 billion by 2026, there remains significant room for growth, he said.
“Africa is undergoing a digital revolution, with the internet economy projected to reach $180 billion – or 5% of Africa’s GDP – by 2025. Africa has 17% of the world’s population, but only 1% of its data centre capacity, so it’s a nascent economy,” Munzara said.
“Currently, around 40% of the continent’s data centres are held by telcos, but we see massive investment coming into the colocation carrier neutral space,” he said. “There is growing interest in African data centres from international development finance institutions and infrastructure funds are recognising data centres as an asset class, so we expect growth to continue.”
“Incumbent multi-tenant carrier neutral providers are expected to invest heavily in delivering larger deployments, and we expect more mergers and acquisitions as organisations that have their own data centres start offloading them. Enterprise migration to colocation data centres will accelerate as their own facilities are non-core to business.”
Munzara cited the example of Standard Bank, whose South Africa data centre was acquired by Africa Data Centres in 2020. This Tier IV data centre in Samrand is now focused on the financial services sector, offering maximum security and resilience with the advantage of a colocation ecosystem that cross-connects the industry.”
He said that the market has become more competitive, but that differentiators would include innovation and sustainability. “Africa Data Centres has the advantage that we have been growing and establishing our footprint for some time. We have a pan-African network that can offer the same offering replicated across the continent. We also innovate in areas such as design and efficiency, and prioritise sourcing and generating renewable power, which not only assures electricity supply but also helps customers achieve their de-carbonisation goals.”
Round table participants said that while cloud was a logical progression, many organisations’ cloud journeys were hampered by concerns about data sovereignty and security, the true cost of cloud, and legacy infrastructure and applications which were not suited to the cloud environment. Colocation providers could address these concerns and fill the gap between on-premise and public cloud, they said.
With nine data centres in seven countries, Africa Data Centres is Africa’s largest network of interconnected, carrier- and cloud-neutral data centre facilities. It is currently building 10 new sites across the continent to deliver on the vision of a digitally connected future that leaves no African behind, said Munzara.
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