The International Finance Corporation (IFC) has partnered with Strive Masiyiwa’s Liquid Intelligent Technologies to expand its data centre capacity and the rollout of fibreoptic cable on the continent.
A lack of infrastructure continues to be a big hurdle for African governments looking to connect their people to the internet and capitalise on the digital economy.
According to the Broadband Commission on Sustainable Development, Sub-Saharan Africa needs about $100bn (R1.5-trillion) in investment to achieve universal, affordable, and high-quality broadband access by 2030. To achieve universal broadband access, the continent needs at least 250,000km of new fibre.
On Monday, the IFC and Liquid said the partnership aims “to increase digital connectivity and inclusion in Africa and to support the region’s growing digital ecosystem”.
An affiliate of the World Bank, IFC specialises in financing private-enterprise investment in developing countries, through both loans and direct investments.
IFC says its equity and debt investments in Liquid, totalling about $250m to date, will support the telecom and technology operator to grow its hyperscale data centre capacity in Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria and SA through its subsidiary, Africa Data Centres (ADC).
“As Africa’s population grows and is increasingly urbanised, data consumption is expected to grow strongly and with this comes the need for secure local data hosting,” the company said.
Liquid, traditionally a telecom infrastructure player, has built Africa’s largest independent fibre network, stretching more than 100,000km, and operates data centres in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Nairobi, and is expanding its offering beyond telecommunications.
Liquid is expanding its cloud business, security services and other technologies on top of its existing telecom capability. As such, the business recently rebranded itself from Liquid Telecom to Liquid Intelligent Technologies, entering a market dominated by companies such as Telkom subsidiary BCX, Dimension Data, EOH and Altron.
As part of the change, the group has taken advantage of its fibre network to create a data centre service on the continent. Through ADC, the company is Africa’s largest data centre operator. In SA the company recently bought the Samrand data centre, north of Johannesburg, from Standard Bank for an undisclosed sum.
“The investments in our data centres and fibre broadband network will directly support our growth plans over the coming years by encouraging the adoption of new services such as Cloud and other digital services, services that are critical in driving sustainable development across Africa,” said Masiyiwa, executive chair and founder of Liquid Intelligent Technologies, in a statement.
In February Liquid raised $840m through a bond issue on the Euronext Dublin stock exchange, which was earmarked for investment in new infrastructure, data centres and new technologies.
Liquid has been hard at work putting these funds to use on a number of expansion projects.
In July Liquid and social media giant Facebook said they would build an extensive fibre network in the DRC that is expected to improve internet access for more than 30-million people and “help meet growing demand for regional connectivity across central Africa”.
In September Microsoft teamed up with Liquid to upgrade its videoconferencing platform, adding features that would allow its calling service to dial a landline or mobile phone as the battle with Zoom and WhatsApp heats up.
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