Airtel Africa, through its datacentre arm Nxtra by Airtel Africa, has officially broken ground for the construction of what it says is set to be East Africa’s largest datacentre, to date.
The $150 million facility has a planned power capacity of 44 megawatts (MW) and is designed to support cloud computing, AI workloads, and enterprise-scale services across the region.
Speaking during the groundbreaking, Yashnath Issur, CEO, Nxtra Africa, said the investment was part of Airtel Group's long-term commitment to Africa’s digital future.
‘’Nxtra by Airtel is being built to the highest global standards, ensuring reliability, scalability, and energy efficiency. Beyond capacity, our focus is on sustainability and resilience, enabling customers to fully leverage next-generation technologies in a secure environment,” he added.
The datacentre will be developed in two phases of 22MW each, reaching a total site capacity of 44MW upon completion and is expected to be ready for service in the first quarter of 2027.
Ashish Malhotra, MD, Airtel Kenya said the project is a milestone for Kenya’s digital economy. “It reinforces Kenya’s continuing leadership in Africa’s digital revolution by improving data sovereignty, security, and efficiency.
“Once operational, it will attract global tech players, create jobs, lower the cost of digital services, and make it easier for Kenyan companies to grow, while Kenya strengthens its place as a regional hub for technology and innovation,” he said.
Airtel Africa launched Nxtra in December 2023 with the aim to build five datacentres in major cities located strategically across Airtel Africa’s footprint.
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