![[Africa Tech Review] Nixon Kanali: More African countries are competing for a share of the continent’s data center market](Images/Key Persons/Nixon_Kanali_.jpeg)
[Africa Tech Review] Nixon Kanali: More African countries are competing for a share of the continent’s data center market
The African data center market is poised for massive growth in 2022 as internet penetration rates rise and the continent begins to play catch-up with other regions. Currently, the continent accounts for less than 1% of the world’s co-location data centre supply, with South Africa accounting for the bulk of the continent’s capacity. 2022 is the year we expect other countries to compete for a share of this market.
This week, Acronis, a global player in cyber protection announced the availability of a new Acronis Cyber Cloud Data Center in Lagos, Nigeria. With 5G and edge computing opening a world of new revenue opportunities across manufacturing, transport, gaming and mission-critical services, Ericsson this week also announced it is extending its network exposure to the edge.
We also covered some interesting stories from African startups this week. Kenyan food-tech startup, Kune officially began commercial operations with four meal hubs located in strategic locations in Nairobi. Four African fintech startups were selected to join the tenth cohort of the Catalyst Fund accelerator. TradeDepot, a B2B eCommerce and embedded finance platform in Africa acquired its competitor from Ghana Green Lion for an undisclosed amount. Absa Bank Kenya Plc signed a Ksh1.25 billion Loan Portfolio Guarantee Facility with the African Guarantee Fund (AGF) to boost credit accessibility for local small businesses, including startups. African fintech startup Flutterwave unveiled a significant re-brand and identity at Flutterwave 3.0, a virtual event held on Friday, 18th February 2022 while Nigerian fintech startup Earnipay which provides flexible and on-demand salary access to income-earners closed a Seed round of $4million.
In Kenya, Equity Group, in partnership with Microsoft, this week launched a virtual hackathon open to students from The University of Nairobi and Meru University of Science and Technology. In South Africa, ACI Worldwide, the global real-time payments software, announced a partnership with Nedbank, to drive its digital transformation journey including real-time payments. Still, on matters finance, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) facilitated three test letters of credit on the digital trade finance network Contour in Egypt.
Back in Nigeria, the federal government officially handed over the spectrum allocation for Fifth Generation (5G) deployment in the country to the Nigerian Communications Commission. The Ministry of Communication and Digital Economy also revealed that Nigeria recorded a yearly outflow of foreign exchange for the telecommunications sector amounting to about $2.16 billion
This week, Meta announced that it is expanding the availability of Facebook Reels for iOS and Android to more than 20 countries across sub-Saharan Africa. Vodacom also announced that it has invested R450 million in Mpumalanga in South Africa to drive digital inclusion.
Other top highlights of the week include cybersecurity company Surfshark releasing a new report that revealed Zimbabwe suffered its third internet disruption in the past 3 years, as internet service was purposely slowed down on Sunday, 20 February 2022, Mastercard announcing the inaugural Women SME Leaders Awards 2022, to recognize and further empower women-owned and run SMEs in the Middle East and Africa The Pan Africa Gaming Group (PAGG) was also unveiled this week, bringing 10 studios together under a single umbrella across Africa.
Nixon Kanali is the Tech Editor for Africa Business Communities.
