Africa Data Centres has drawn down the first tranche of $83-million out of the $300-million strategic investment from the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) approved in 2021. The initial tranche is being applied towards expanding ADC’s data centres in South Africa.
Subsequent disbursements from DFC will be used to realise the expansion of ADC’s footprint of data centres in other DFC-eligible African countries.
ADC is executing an ambitious plan to build data centres in 10 of Africa’s largest economic capitals, including Abidjan, Accra, Lagos, Cairo, and Casablanca. It is also adding to its existing carrier-neutral data centres in Johannesburg and Cape Town.
Tesh Durvasula, CEO of Africa Data Centre, comments: “The increasing demand for cloud and other digital technologies on the continent has directly increased the demand for African data to reside within the continent. This means Africa needs more data centres. We are pleased that our data centre expansion programme in South Africa funded by DFC will cater to the growing demand in the country.”
Hardy Pemhiwa, president and CEO or ADC holding company Cassava Technologies, says: “This investment by DFC follows our recent announcement of the $50-million investment by C5 Capital into Cassava Technologies and a partnership to build cyber security operations centres across six markets in Africa.
“Through these investments, Cassava Technologies is building Africa’s digital infrastructure to enable accelerated economic development and ensure a digitally-connected future that leaves no African behind.
“Africa has unrealised economic potential that will be unlocked by this investment from DFC. We look forward to working closely with DFC to overcome Africa’s digital infrastructure deficit and accelerate the adoption of cloud services and digital applications across all industries, further making the continent a competitive destination for international investment,” Pemhiwa adds.