Kenyan mobile network operator Safaricom has announced the deployment of a prefabricated data centre in Addis Ababa, a move that is in line with the company’s target to expand operations in the country
In a social media post, the company stated, “At such a monumental time where we are building our network, we are committed to bringing the best telecom technology to Ethiopia. We have invested US$100mn in our first data centre in Addis.”
According to Pedro Rabacal, chief technology officer at Safaricom Ethiopia, the company is investing around US$300mn in Ethiopia in 2022 and more data centres will be rolled out as part of its network growth plan.
Ethiopia is positioning itself to transforming its telco sector, with a surge in data centre development. Ethiopia’s capital is seeing a surge in data centre developments. In May 2021, Ethio Telecom opened a Huaewei-made modular data centre in the capital. Raxio also broke ground on a three megawatt facility in Addis Ababa’s ICT Park. In addition to these, Wingu.Africa and RedFox are developing facilities in the same place.
