Cloud and Data Centre Provider Digital Realty To acquire Medallion Data Centres in Nigeria
Digital Realty has announced plans to acquire Medallion Data Centres, Nigeria's leading colocation and interconnection provider.
The global provider of cloud- and carrier-neutral data center, colocation, and interconnection solutions will aquire Medallion through a joint venture with Pembani Remgro Infrastructure Fund. Pembani Remgro Infrastructure Fund is a joint initiative established by Remgro, Phuthuma Nhleko and the investment team, based in Johannesburg.
Medallion operates two data centers, one in Lagos, the most populous urban metropolitan area in Africa with approximately 15 million people, and one in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria. Medallion's Lagos data center is the leading connectivity hub in Western Africa with over 70 carriers and internet service providers, over 80% of the public peering traffic on the Nigerian Internet Exchange, and a peering point for all subsea cables currently operating in Nigeria with plans to serve as a peering point for the nine new subsea cables scheduled to be in operation in Lagos by 2023.
As part of the transaction, the joint venture is also acquiring a land parcel adjacent to the Lagos data center to provide near-term expansion capacity. Medallion's management team, led by CEO and co-founder Ike Nnamani, will continue to lead the business.
Separately, Digital Realty and Pembani Remgro Infrastructure Fund have successfully partnered with Kenyan data center operator iColo since 2019, and iColo announced today that it will enter Mozambique through the development of its first data center in the country, located in the capital and port city of Maputo.
"Over the next decade, there will be huge opportunity for global businesses to tap into Africa's expanding internet economy – with predictions that it could reach 5.2% of the continent's GDP by 2025, contributing nearly $180 billion to its economy (up from $115 billion in 2020). By 2050, the internet economy has the potential to contribute $712 billion1. Through major investment in the continent's internet infrastructure, Digital Realty aims to be a core enabler of these economic and quality of life gains. '' William Stein, Chief Executive Officer, Digital Realty said.
"There is a huge opportunity to both meet growing customer demand for connectivity in Africa and improve the internet infrastructure that serves over one billion people2 who don't yet have proper access to the benefits of internet. The expansion of our platform announced today is a leap forward but it's just the start of our $500 million commitment to investment in the continent over the next decade. We see a huge opportunity to underpin Africa's expanding internet economy and play a central role in its growth." he added.
The iColo campus in Mombasa was recently expanded to deliver an additional 1.6 megawatts of power and 12,900 square feet of capacity for new and existing customers, along with the new subsea cable landing equipment. In addition, iColo has expanded its Nairobi campus with the acquisition of an additional 215,000 square feet of land that will support 14 megawatts of future data center capacity.
Africa is evolving into a major interconnection hub for data-driven businesses that require a scalable, future-proof platform to facilitate global hybrid and multi-cloud infrastructure. The deployment of PlatformDIGITAL®, Digital Realty's market-leading global data center platform, across Africa will enable multinational and local businesses to rapidly scale their digital transformations by deploying critical infrastructure with a leading global data center provider at the heart of a growing connected data community in the region.
