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Africa’s digital infrastructure is entering a new phase of expansion, with the continent’s operational data centre capacity now exceeding 500 megawatts (MW), while an additional 890MW worth of facilities is under development, according to a new report by Fortren & Company. The growth underscores rising investment in cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI), enterprise data storage and digital transformation across African markets.
The report notes that although South Africa continues to dominate the sector with more than 60 percent of the continent’s operational capacity, investment is steadily spreading to emerging digital hubs including Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt, Ghana, Ethiopia and Morocco. These markets are increasingly attracting hyperscale data centre investments as demand for digital services accelerates.
According to the report, Africa’s expanding digital economy has fuelled demand for larger, more sophisticated facilities capable of supporting AI workloads, cloud services and advanced computing applications. As businesses and governments continue their digital transformation journeys, hyperscale data centres are becoming critical infrastructure for supporting future economic growth.
The study also highlights growing investor confidence in the sector, describing data centres as attractive long-term infrastructure assets due to their predictable revenue streams, resilient demand and strategic importance in modern digital economies. Among the major projects in the development pipeline are Oracle Cloud Infrastructure’s planned facility in Kenya, Khazna Data Center’s project in Egypt and Airtel’s proposed data centre in Nigeria. Together, these and other projects account for an estimated 890MW of additional capacity expected to come online in the coming years.
In assessing industry growth, the report identifies megawatt capacity as the preferred benchmark for evaluating data centres because it reflects the computing power available to support servers, storage systems and networking equipment, while also serving as an indicator of a facility’s long-term commercial potential.
South Africa remains home to four of Africa’s seven largest operational data centres. The Teraco Isando Campus in Johannesburg tops the list with 70MW of IT capacity. Nigeria’s 21st Century Technologies Ikeja Campus ranks fourth with 36MW, making it the country’s largest operational data centre. Ghana’s Agility Logistics Park Data Centre Campus currently offers 30MW of committed IT capacity with room to scale up to 150MW, while Egypt’s East Cairo Logistics Park Data Centre Campus operates at 25MW and has expansion potential to 45MW. South Africa’s Africa Data Centres JHB1 Midrand facility completes the list with 20MW of IT capacity.
Industry analysts say the expansion reflects Africa’s increasing role in the global digital economy as governments, telecom operators, cloud providers and private investors ramp up spending on critical digital infrastructure. The rising demand for AI services, cloud platforms and local data hosting is expected to sustain investment momentum across the continent in the coming years.
For Nigeria, the growing pipeline of data centre investments is expected to strengthen local cloud infrastructure, improve data sovereignty, reduce latency for digital services and support the country’s ambition of becoming a leading technology hub in Africa. As more hyperscale facilities come online, businesses and consumers alike are expected to benefit from faster, more reliable and secure digital services.
