Business
Strive Masiyiwa announces start of $100m Econet data facility in Nigeria
BY NICHOLAS ABE
The Executive Chairman and Founder of the Econet Group, Strive Masiyiwa, has announced the commencement of construction of a $100 million data centre facility in Lagos, the commercial capital of Nigeria.
Masiyiwa said the project, Econet’s first major data centre facility in Nigeria, will be sitting on five acres of land space and will be the largest outside South Africa.
The data centre, named ADC Atlantic, is part of Econet’s aggressive push to expand and entrench its hold on the communications sector in Africa.
In a Facebook post on Friday, Masiyiwa announced enthusiastically: “This week marked the start of the construction of our first major Data Centre facility in Lagos, Nigeria. Named the ADC Atlantic, this is a US$100m investment in the Nigerian economy. In the Data Centre world, this will be the largest facility outside South Africa.
“Another major development for us this week was the approval of an investment of US$300m into this business by the United States government’s International Development Finance Corporation known as DFC. This money will allow us to expand our facilities in South Africa and Kenya, as well as build new facilities in Egypt, Ghana, and Morocco.”
READ: 42m Nigerians captured in national identity data base
Masiyiwa whose first inroad into Nigeria’s economy saw to the birthing of Econet Wireless Network, one of the two telecoms companies (the other being MTN Nigeria) to be licenced in 2001, to deliver the GSM telephony, described his new project as a “new revolution” that even the coronavirus pandemic cannot stop.
“A few years ago, ADC was just a single facility in Nairobi, Kenya. It was not a company, but as my team and I watched what was happening we realised it should become a separate company. We hired experts from around the world, and brought them together. We then began to expand the business by inviting investors,” Masiyiwa, a motivational speaker said while encouraging entrepreneurs with some business tips.
He added: “This is our largest investment in Nigeria since the mobile industry started.
“Once again, I’m kicking off a new revolution in the next phase of technology. What is important is not the Data Centres but the technologies that will be unleashed in Nigeria because of this infrastructure. That’s the BIG deal here!”
The Econet boss said because of the power need of the project, ADC will work with a sister company, DPA, to provide the power system using solar energy and natural gas.