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IXAfrica and Schneider Electric have announced the launch of a hyper-scale data centre in Kenya, marking a significant milestone in the region’s technological infrastructure development.
Ifeanyi Odoh, Schneider Electric’s Country President in East Africa, highlighted the advanced solutions provided by Schneider Electric, engineered to support N+1 redundancy with four independent power trains. These solutions meet IXAfrica’s immediate and long-term objectives, including a design Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) of 1.25 across the campus and a 99.999% uptime guarantee.
Snehar Shah, CEO of IXAfrica, emphasized Kenya’s readiness for hyper-cloud services, citing the nation’s advanced cloud adoption, digitally savvy ecosystem, diverse internet fibre connectivity, and reliable low-carbon power sources. Shah noted that Kenya offers a stable regulatory and political environment, with a strong economic growth forecast of 5.2% for 2024.
IXAfrica has been steadily expanding its presence in Kenya’s infrastructure market. Since early 2021, the company has been developing its Nairobi Campus One with a $50 million capital investment from Helios, an investment firm. In August 2023, IXAfrica further strengthened its commitment by signing a deal with real estate developer Tilisi Developments to acquire 11 acres of prime land for constructing a second data centre campus in Nairobi.
Kenya is at the forefront of the booming African data centre sector, alongside Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria, and South Africa. The Kenyan data centre market, valued at $227 million in 2023, is projected to reach $440 million by 2029, growing at a CAGR of 11.66% from 2023 to 2029.
Additionally, in May 2024, Microsoft and G42, an AI firm based in the United Arab Emirates, announced a $1 billion digital investment in Kenya. This investment includes the development of a cutting-edge data centre campus powered by renewable geothermal energy and water conservation technology, in collaboration with local partners.
These developments underscore Kenya’s strategic importance and readiness as a hub for digital infrastructure in Africa.
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