(Ecofin Agency) - South African company Teraco Data Environments (Pty) Ltd, which specializes in the provision of neutral data centers and cloud services for operators, mobilized R2.5 billion ($167 million) to build its new data center based in Ekurhuleni, east of Johannesburg.  The money is a syndicated loan led by Absa Bank. 

The total investment required for this project is $250 million and Teraco said it will finance the remaining amount on equity. The company claims the new data center, called JB4, will be the largest in Africa. Its construction is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2022. It will be built on 50,000 square meters of land and will be powered by an 80 MW source.

JB4 is the latest extension of Teraco's data center platform in South Africa. It already includes Campus Isando JB1 / JB3, Bredell JB2, Rondebosch Cape Town CT1, Brackenfell Cape Town CT2 and Durban. The construction of this infrastructure is in line with Teraco's 2020 commitment to increase its investment in South Africa to meet the growing demand for cloud services in the country and in sub-Saharan Africa. It also ensures a comfortable revenue stream for the company.

In its “Data Center Market in Africa - Industry Outlook and Forecast 2020-2025” report, ReportLinker estimated that “Africa's data center market size is expected to cross $3 billion by 2025 […] The Africa data center industry has witnessed a steady interest from major global cloud service providers such as AWS and Microsoft, along with Huawei over the last five years.

“The increasing demand for cloud-based services and modular data center solutions among enterprises, especially in SMEs and government agencies, are expected to drive the market in Africa. It is expected that over 70% of organizations operating in the region will shift to cloud services by 2025,” the report reads.

Muriel Edjo