Landmark agreement signed for DRC’s data centre
Author: Isha Jain
Chris Wood, Group CEO of WIOCC Group and Christophe Evers, CFO of TEXAF have signed a landmark shareholder agreement for the operation of OADC Kinshasa.
It will be the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)’s first open access, carrier neutral data centre, Tier-III certified by the Uptime Institute, and is expected to go live in November 2023.
With a population of more than 16 million people, Kinshasa is at the epicentre of demand for digital connectivity services within the DRC. Located within TEXAF’s Silikin Village, the 2MW capable OADC Kinshasa is an important, strategic element of digital infrastructure for the DRC. It will also create rich and vibrant digital ecosystems, and provide content distribution networks and cloud content providers with access to a quality peering location in the country.
The data centre will underpin and expedite further development of the country’s ICT capabilities, delivering colocation and other value-added data centre services that support the cloud infrastructure needs of a wide range of businesses and enterprises, enabling them to improve efficiency, expedite digitisation initiatives and more effectively service business and customer needs.
Mohammed Bouhelal, Managing Director of Open Access Data Centres DRC, reports, “There has already been strong uptake from telcos looking to colocate in our facility, while the banking sector is leading the way in adopting OADC solutions. It is also attracting large international content providers to the DRC.”
It is a strategic element within the CEO, Dr Ayotunde Coker’s innovative core-to-edge strategy, which is based on rapid deployment of appropriately scaled data centres into key business hubs, delivering transformational hosting/colocation services to major facilities across Africa. Configured with an initial 400m2 of IT white space, it will grow to 1000m of white space and will ultimately accommodate more than 550 racks.
The facility embodies carrier neutral principles, maximising interconnection opportunities for all clients. Increased competition and improved operator cost efficiencies will contribute to the expected decrease in cost of internet connectivity for the Congolese people and companies, and will be a major enabler for the emergence and enhancement of the DRC’s digital ecosystem.
Unique CODI offering
Converged open digital infrastructure, supplemented by a rich, vibrant digital ecosystem, will help boost the DRC’s economy and expedite digital transformation in the country.
It will not only offer businesses a viable alternative to self-build and self-manage data centre facilities with all the dedicated resource, expertise, management time and cost benefits that come with that, but also support the cloud infrastructure needs of a wide range of businesses and enterprises, enabling them to improve efficiency, expedite digitisation initiatives and more effectively service business and customer needs. Carriers will also benefit, because OADC Kinshasa offers them connectivity revenue opportunities and the opportunity to extend their service portfolios, by including a managed colocation service capability.
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