• Africa Data Centres has signed a strategic partnership with the London Internet Exchange (LINX).
• The partnership will see Africa Data Centre add more value to its products through LINX, with the UK-based exchange receiving access to more customers.
• The pan-African hyperscaler firm recently received a pledge for $300 million from the US’ International Development Finance Corporation.

Pan-African data centre firm, aptly named Africa Data Centres, is making more international partnerships to expand its business opportunities on the continent.

The company previously received an investment of $300 million from the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), and now it signed a strategic partnership with the London Internet Exchange (LINX).

Internet exchanges like LINX are basically common grounds for internet providers to network with each other and exchange data. These exchanges are often located in places with preexisting connections to multiple networks, such data centres.

“We are excited to be working with Africa Data Centres on this journey into new markets across Africa,” enthused Nurani Nimpuno, Head of Global Engagement at LINX in a press release.

“The data centre giant has the largest hub of interconnected facilities on the continent, making it the ideal partner to serve the growth and demand predicted in the ICT sector and opening up fantastic opportunities for countries across Africa, and making digital services a reality for hundreds of millions of citizens,” Nimpuno adds.

LINX says it has over 950 plus members “spanning all major cloud, data communications, telecommunications and enterprise companies across more than 85 countries.”

The exchange has a hub located in Nairobi, Kenya, which is the only one on the continent. Africa Data Centres already operates a data centre facility in the East African city.

According to chief executive Tesh Durvasula, the LINX partnership is all about sweetening the deal and adding value to local network communities and data centre facilities.

Africa Data Centres is currently on a $500 million mission that will see it build multiple hyperscale data centre facilities across the continent. It is planning to launch in 10 of Africa’s economic hubs, including South Africa, Nigeria, Zambia, Kenya, Rwanda, Egypt, Morocco, Senegal, Ivory Coast, and Angola.

Recently, it announced the construction of a centre in Accra, Ghana.

“Building new facilities is the one path that Africa can take to address the growing need for storage and networking that are crucial to digitising Africa and bringing digital services to its citizens,” Durvasula explains.

“This new partnership [with LINX] is the recipe for great things to enhance connectivity and digital services in new and emerging markets across Africa,” Durvasula adds.

[Image – Photo by Marcin Nowak on Unsplash]