Airtel Africa is set to expand its operations in Kenya by establishing a new Kenyan Airtel Data Center in the capital of Kenya, Nairobi. This move is considered to be a part of the strategies put in place by the telecommunications company to diversify its revenue sources and mark its second data center in Africa, following the one that is located in the West African country, Nigeria.
Capacity of the Kenyan Airtel Data Center
According to the telecommunications company, the state of the art facility shall possess a capacity of seven megawatts (7MW) and will be able to meet the needs of telecommunications and other sectors. In a conference call that was held on February 1st 2024 with call analysts, the chief executive officer of the telecommunications company to Africa, made an announcement that the company had kicked off its plans of commencing data infrastructure development that would be conducted in Nigeria. The Kenyan Airtel Data Center project is expected to be completed by the period of mid-2026.
The ground breaking of the telecommunications company data center in Nigeria will be done in the coming two weeks and the one in Kenya will precede shortly after. The construction process of the data center usually takes around two years and both of these projects are expected to be operational in the year 2026.
According to the telecommunications company, the construction of these two data centers in Africa will enhance the speed of accessing digital services and also lead to a reduction in the cost of data management. This move is foreseen to not only foster innovation but also give support to the upcoming tech talent in the African region.
Size of the Data Center
Additionally, compared to the one that the telecommunications company intends to construct in Nigeria that has a capacity of 36MW, this one that is based in Nairobi will be quite smaller. The CEO also made emphasis on the significance of these two upcoming data centers in Africa and referred to them as the key stars in our portfolio. Furthermore, he also made an affirmation that these two data centers will be operated commercially.
The data center project in Kenya is an indication of the underway efforts of the firm to expand its sources of revenue beyond just the traditional business of communication and the just-recently-established sector of mobile money.
Other Projects
Other than that, the telecommunications company also launched Nxtra, which is its data hub. This was launched in December 2023 with a commitment to carter for the increasing needs of the trusted and sustainable data center capacity of the African continent.
The data hub has mainly set its focus on the establishment of an extensive network of data centers distributed all over the African continent. These state-of-the-art facilities will be located strategically in the major cities of the African countries across the footprint of the telecommunications company Africa. This initiative was clearly outlined in a recent statement that was released by telecommunications company Africa.
The CEO also announced that the plans of broadening the company’s data center footprint beyond the existing two data center facilities that will be based in the cities of Lagos and Nairobi. In the recent years, it can be noted that Airtel has been significantly expanding its presence and operations in the Kenyan market by putting quite substantial investments in the voice and mobile money sectors.
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