Africa Data Centres Holds Ground Breaking Ceremony In Nairobi

By Samuel Ouma [caption id="attachment_104204" align="alignnone" width="800"] Tesh Durvasula, CEO of Africa Data Centres[/caption] Africa Data Centres, a business of Cassava Technologies, a pan-African technology group, on Thursday, January 19, 2023, held its groundbreaking ceremony at its new facility in Nairobi. The event was graced by Kenyan government officials, US ambassador to Kenya Meg Whiteman, and UK High Commissioner Jane Marriott, among others. The existing facility on the neighbouring plot of land will be enlarged to accommodate an additional 15MW of IT load as part of the new construction. ADC is projected to play an essential part in Africa's digital transformation and economic prosperity. "We believe data centres will play a significant role in digital transformation and economic growth on our continent. Without them, the push towards a digital economy in Africa will be missing a key pillar. Our decision to increase our investment in our data centres in Kenya is in recognition of the position the country now occupies as a leader in the adoption of digital technologies in Africa," says Hardy Pemhiwa, Group President & CEO of Cassava Technologies. According to Tesh Durvasula, CEO of Africa Data Centres, the facility's expansion will enable Africa their clients to grow and scale depending on their requirements. “Our clients can start small, increase to a medium capacity, and even benefit from a hyperscale type of deployment in a few years if they choose to. This will enable customers to operate multiple deployments across our sites with a single operations team, campus, and infrastructure they are familiar with,” said CEO Tesh Durvasula. The new data facility will begin with 5MW of IT load. It will be built in Africa Data Centres' leading-edge modular design - an innovative approach that sees the entire facility, including all critical plant rooms, prefabricated off-site. This ensures the highest possible quality, whilst local contractors will still benefit from contracts to lay foundations, assemble, and complete the build. Durvasula added that Africa Data Centre is fortunate in Kenya as almost 70% of grid power is from green energy sources. "This helps us to meet our sustainability objectives because we understand no organisation can achieve zero carbon emissions by itself. We understand that sustainability is about ensuring that we conduct ourselves in a manner that minimises our impact on the environment. We extend this ethos to all of our partners, and constantly look for ways to ensure that all elements of the business contribute positively to the sustainability of the planet,” he said. Currently, Africa Data Centres is investing $500m into building hyperscale data centres across Africa with the support of the US Development Finance Corporation.