Africa Data Centres, a business of Cassava Technologies, has decided to construct a new datacentre in Kigali, the company’s first in Rwanda.

According to a statement released by the company, the new facility will have 2MW of IT load and will be ready in the first quarter of 2023.

Tesh Durvasula, CEO of Africa Data Centres.

Tesh Durvasula, CEO, Africa Data Centres, says, “"It is an exciting time for Africa Data Centres. Our decision to build a datacentre in Kigali was an easy one, given Rwanda's robust economic recovery post the COVID-19 pandemic and the Government of Rwanda's focus on digital transformation".

"Our decision to build a datacentre in Kigali was an easy one, given Rwanda's robust economic recovery post the COVID-19 pandemic and the Government of Rwanda's focus on digital transformation".

Hardy Pemhiwa, Group President & CEO of Cassava Technologies, adds, “This latest announcement adds to and complements our existing investments in Rwanda and elsewhere in East Africa. We will work closely with both public and private enterprises in Rwanda to ensure that they can harness the benefits of our datacentre facility to enable the provision of digital services that Rwandan citizens need.”

According to Durvasula, “This new datacentre brings three main benefits to the market – global standards, high quality of service and affordability. In addition, enterprises will achieve cost savings associated with building and maintaining their own facilities”.

Africa Data Centres says it will ensure that Rwanda becomes part of their ecosystem in East Africa by connecting the new datacentre to their site in Nairobi.

Speaking of the need for colocation services in the country, Durvasula says the local enterprise market is eager to benefit from Africa Data Centres' colocation services and a stable datacentre environment. "They will also be able to make the most of global connectivity through a range of global service providers and cloud service providers".

In May this year Durvasula said the desire by Africans to keep their data within their country’s borders continues to drive investment into datacentre infrastructure.

Africa Data Centres has based its infrastructure development strategy on several factors, but key to its plan is to fill a void that exists on the continent.

Durvasula says Africa currently accounts for less than 1% of the world’s datacentres supply and lacks the capacity to store, process and control its data. But it is still potentially the most attractive continent for datacentre investment “due to its burgeoning middle class, young population, of citizens, entrepreneurs and innovators who are hungry for digital services, and are keen to go online. There is no doubt the continent is massively under-serviced, and Africa Data Centres aims to address that.”