West African carrier neutral data centre operator Rack Centre has announced an expansion to a total net lettable white space of 6,000 square metres and 13 MW of IT power capacity at its Lagos campus, ITWeb reported. This increase will supplement the expansion already under way to double existing capacity to 1.5 MW and 1,200 square metres of white space in early 2021. The report said the expansion is worth USD 100 million.
It said that in March, London private equity firm Actis announced an investment in Rack Centre, taking a controlling stake in the business alongside Jagal. The funding for this expansion will come from a USD 250 million pan-African data centre platform established by Actis and ICT infrastructure investor Convergence Partners. In addition to Rack Centre, the platform is developing other buy and build opportunities in Africa, to establish a network of carrier neutral data centres aimed at catering to carrier, cloud and hyperscale customers.
Tim Parsonson, co-founder of Teraco Data Environments, the largest carrier neutral operator in Africa, joins the board as chairperson. The platform has also engaged Frank Hassett, a veteran of the global data centre industry and previous vice president of infrastructure at Equinix, who brings over 1300 MW of build and operate experience, to assist with hyperscale expansion.
The partners says that with 138 million internet subscribers, Nigeria is a key entry point for global telecommunications, content and cloud players seeking access to the region.
