Last Updated 10th September 2025–
The Kenyan Airtel Data Center Project is a planned data center development located in Nairobi, Kenya. The project involves the establishment of a new data center facility as part of Airtel Africa’s expansion of its infrastructure operations in the country and is intended to support the company’s broader diversification strategy. The facility will represent Airtel’s second data center development in Africa, following its existing data center in Nigeria.
The data center is being developed at Tatu City, within the Nairobi metropolitan area, and has a planned capacity of 44MW. Construction activities have commenced on site, and the facility is scheduled for commissioning in the first quarter of 2027.
Other than the Kenyan Airtel data center project, iXAfrica is also expected host Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Region in Nairobi. East African-based data center firm iXAfrica is expected to host Oracle cloud infrastructure region in Kenya’s capital Nairobi. The company announced earlier this week that it had been selected for the role as host partner. Moreover, iXAfrica showed its delight to be part of the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) region in East Africa. “We are delighted to be in execution mode to bring OCI to Kenya,” said Snehar Shah, CEO, iXAfrica.
Cost of Kenyan Airtel Data Center
The data centre facility is expected to cost $150 million. The project marks a significant milestone in Kenya’s digital infrastructure journey. Additionally, the data centre is designed to support cloud computing, AI workloads, and enterprise-scale services across the region.
Nairobi Emerges as a Hub of Data Center Investment
Similarly, IXAFRICA also developed its data centre in Nairobi. With the Airtel data centre and IXAFRICA Africa both located in Nairobi, it is clear that the Kenyan capital is emerging as a leading data centre investment hub in Africa where in several other countries data centers are spriningup.
About Airtel Nigeria Data Center
Airtel is also developing a data center in Nigeria. 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.
Capacity of the Data Center
The data centre has a total planned power capacity of 44 megawatts. This is present across two phases of development of 22MW each.
This upcoming data centre in Nairobi by Airtel is referred to as a key stars in the telecommunications company portfolio. Furthermore, the data center 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.
Job Creation and Economic Impact
The data centre project will create hundreds of direct and indirect jobs during construction. Additionally, it will create permanent technical and operational roles upon completion.
Also, local suppliers and contractors will benefit from the project. Eventually, it will millions into Kenya’s economy and strengthening the nation’s position as a regional technology hub in East Africa.
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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