Finhai Munzara, Interim CEO of Africa Data Centres.

Africa Data Centres (ADC) intends to expand its presence across West and North Africa, the company’s interim CEO, Finhai Munzara, told ITWeb Africa yesterday.

Speaking on the sidelines of the Africa Tech Festival 2024 in Cape Town, Munzara said that while South Africa remains the largest market in terms of scale, the company is looking for more opportunities across the continent, due to growing demand for its services.

Munzara said that accelerated cloud adoption and digital transformation are having a positive impact on the data centre industry, with a notable shift of workloads from on-premises to third-party data centres.

On the subject of international companies entering the African data centre market, Munzara said this indicates robust growth potential.

“I think it’s confirmation of what we’ve always known; that the opportunity is here (Africa) and this is the next wave of opportunity.

“It’s good for the industry, because it also signals to a lot of global customers who want to come that you can host locally in Africa, and there many different options. I think we will all get our fair share of the additional demand that’s coming.”

Overall, Munzara provided a positive image of the African data centre landscape, highlighting prospects for innovation and growth.

He added that the Cassava Technologies-owned ADC was positioned as a key player in enhancing the region’s digital economy through its existing infrastructure and ongoing expansions.

Munzara said: “We are focusing on building interconnected data centres across the continent. We focus on the continent’s economic hubs.

“We are busy expanding our current facility in Nairobi (Kenya) and we are expanding in Lagos as well.

“Next to that we will push further into West Africa and of course into North Africa where we are looking for opportunities.”

Asked by ITWeb Africa for an assessment of key markets, he responded: “From a scale perspective, South Africa remains the biggest market; this is where a lot of big customers and big deployments are.

“From an activity perspective, Nairobi is very interesting. Quite a lot is happening in Nairobi, I think it’s becoming one of the key digital hubs in East Africa.

“Lagos is very attractive; with the kind of population in Nigeria, in Lagos, I think it is going to be a very interesting market.”