Equinix, Inc., a global digital infrastructure company, recently announced plans to enter the South African market with a US$160 million datacentre investment to augment its current footprint in Africa, including Nigeria, Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire.
The company said the new data centre will open in mid-2024.
In a statement, Equinix described South Africa as “one of the largest and most digitally developed nations on the African continent.”
The company added that the country is already a strategically important connectivity hub for digital networks and boasts a significant network of submarine communications cables.
Eugene Bergen, President, EMEA, Equinix, said, “We entered the African continent earlier this year with the acquisition of MainOne, the leading West African datacentre and connectivity solutions provider with presence in Nigeria, Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire. This investment will allow both South African businesses to expand internationally and global businesses to expand into South Africa. Both will be able to accelerate their growth by rapidly scaling their infrastructure, easily adopting hybrid multi-cloud architectures and interconnecting with business partners through the Platform Equinix ecosystem of more than 10,000 customers.”
In April, Equinix announced the acquisition of MainOne for an enterprise value of US$320 million.
Equinix further said, “This acquisition will extend Platform Equinix into West Africa, giving organisations based inside and outside Africa access to global and regional markets. Nigeria has the largest population and economy of any country in Africa, with approximately 142 million active internet subscribers. Home to new innovative digital ecosystems in Fintech and content and digital media, it has a great opportunity to expand digital services.”
Equinix regards Lagos-headquartered MainOne as one of the most exciting technology businesses to emerge from Africa. In addition, Lagos is rapidly becoming a key connectivity hub for the wider West Africa region.
