NTT Limited, the parent company of leading Middle East and Africa (MEA) IT services provider Dimension Data, will drive its global OneNTT strategy aggressively as part of an enhanced regional focus.

The strategy has been designed to bolster greater collaboration and integration in its subsidiary business.

Dimension Data (MEA), with headquarters in South Africa, currently employs nearly 12 000 people and was acquired by NTT in 2010. The company currently operates directly and through partnerships in more than 80% of the countries in the MEA region.

Abhijit Dubey, Group Chief Executive of NTT Ltd, indicated that the decision to remain invested in Dimension Data is driven by the company’s belief that the MEA region is strategically important to the company’s vision and also represents a substantial growth opportunity.

NTT said it has already begun construction of its Johannesburg 1 Data Centre which, when completed, will deliver 6 000m2 of IT space and 12MW of IT load. It will also increase NTT’s datacentre platform in Africa to over 20MW of IT load capacity. The project is planned for completion in the last quarter of this year and will be operational in the first quarter of 2022.

Werner Kapp, CEO of Dimension Data Middle East and Africa.

Dimension Data MEA CEO Werner Kapp said, "By leveraging Dimension Data’s local knowledge and combining it with NTT’s global expertise, we can offer our MEA clients an unmatched product and service experience that puts us in a greater position to lead the regional sector."

Kapp said the company’s core objective is to focus on quality and consistency of experience to customers, and this is the same for the MEA region.

“The Middle East and Africa region is projected to be one of the fastest growing IT services markets globally. We see this through the demand capacity in our datacentres around the continent. In the Middle East we believe there is greater potential for growth in the UAE although our KSA business has grown exponentially. Our East Africa region continues to grow as we also expand our presence in that region to service the high levels of digital innovation happening there. We have also seen the need to increase technology investments in Southern Africa as the ways of working are affected by the pandemic and business continuity becomes priority to keep economic stability,” said Kapp.

“Dimension Data has 78 points-of-presence in the MEA region with significant investment in core undersea cable systems, eleven datacentres across Africa and is one of the largest aggregators of last mile VSAT EPLS networks in the region,” he added.

NTT trades in 73 countries, delivers services in over 200 countries and regions, and has confirmed it will focus on driving more capacity into the MEA region.

“NTT’s renewed commitment in the MEA region comes at the precise moment our clients are looking for digital-first solutions,“ said Kapp. “Especially in the light of the events of the last year, businesses want to be more agile and efficient, with the ability to maintain and enhance productivity whatever the prevailing environment.”