Mohammed Bouhelal appointed as managing director of its operating company Open Access Data Centres.

WIOCC Group has appointed Mohammed Bouhelal as managing director of its operating company Open Access Data Centres (OADC), in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Kinshasa-based Bouhelal will lead the company to accelerate the DRC’s digital transformation, a new market for the group.

Digital infrastructure company WIOCC announced the appointment yesterday, saying it has brought in the experienced senior connectivity and data services professional to establish its presence in the DRC, a country, it says, has the potential to become one of the fastest-growing digital economies on the continent.

WIOCC is building the DRC’s first open-access, carrier-neutral data centre, OADC Kinshasa, which it says, will stimulate the county’s digital ecosystem and economy by delivering converged open digital infrastructure services, including tailored colocation and connectivity.

The data centre will go live later this year.

“Mohammed will work with major enterprises in DRC – particularly within the banking, insurance and financial services sectors, as well as international and local carriers, cloud operators, content providers, fixed-line and mobile telcos, and Internet Service Providers – to help them take advantage of the wealth of opportunities presented by the country’s improving access to digital infrastructure and enhanced international connectivity,” said WIOCC in a statement.

Bouhelal commented on his appointment: “I want to establish WIOCC Group, the parent company of Africa’s digital hyper-scale carrier WIOCC and the continent’s fastest-growing data centre company, OADC, as the leading enabler to the DRC’s digital transformation.

“Our unique converged, open-access digital infrastructure offering – carrier-neutral, open-access data centre facilities connecting to resilient, hyper-scale, open-access, subsea and terrestrial networks – and a rich, vibrant digital ecosystem will help boost the DRC’s economy and will expedite digital transformation in the country.”