IFC partners with S African tech group to boost digital infrastructure

The World Bank Group’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) has partnered with South Africa’s Liquid Intelligent Technologies to expand data centre capacity and roll out fibre-optic cable on the continent, the groups said in a joint statement on Monday.

The link-up with Liquid Intelligent Technologies, formally Liquid Telecom, aims to increase digital connectivity in Africa and to support the region’s growing digital ecosystem, the partners said.

The investment in data centres underscores the rising demand for cloud services even in relatively undeveloped corners of the continent.

US tech giants such as Microsoft and Amazon  are already competing with Chinese telecom firm Huawei to set up massive data centres on the continent as demand for cloud connectivity soars as companies save huge costs by renting storage space than building their own servers.

IFC’s equity and debt investments in Liquid, which to date totals approximately $250 million, will support the company to grow its hyper-scale data centre capacity in Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa through its subsidiary, Africa Data Centres, the statement said.

“As Africa’s population grows and is increasingly urbanized, data consumption is expected to grow strongly and with this comes the need for secure local data hosting,” they added.

The investments will also support the continued roll out of Liquid’s fibre broadband network, which today covers more than 100,000 kilometres of sub-Saharan Africa.