African data centre operators plan more digital infrastructure investments

Due to the substantial increase in demand for data centre services during the recent pandemic, African data centre operators are reportedly planning to invest heavily in infrastructure.

At a panel sponsored by MainOne at International Telecoms Week 2021, data centre industry leaders agreed that additional investments in African infrastructure would be a priority in the upcoming months.

This estimate is backed by recent market research, which indicates strong growth in the Middle East and African (MEA) data centre markets over the next five years. The MEA market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 10.38%, reaching 9.12 billion by 2026.

Investing in infrastructure will help to ensure that both local and international data centre owners/operators can meet increased demand while providing seamless, uninterrupted services to end users.

Read more: MainOne to launch data centre in Accra

The African data centre market had not yet emerged as an opportunity for data centre investment prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, which highlighted – and increased – the gaps between demand for services and the services themselves.

For example, Africa holds 17% of the world’s population, but only 1% of global data centre capacity. Interest in African data centre investment opportunities is also being driven by other factors.

Data localisation.

More countries are instituting regulations that require companies to host data inside a country’s borders. But with so few data centres available on the continent, those regulations are difficult to institute.

Connectivity.

Because the African continent is underserved as far as data centres go, much of the data traffic is routed through Marseilles. This makes it difficult to provide enterprise-level connectivity speed and meet data latency standards.

Sustainability.

In Africa, as in much of the rest of the world, companies are increasingly interested in building sustainable operations. Building a new data infrastructure will allow companies to make green decisions and environmentally positive choices from the start.