Africa accounts for only 0.6% of global data centre capacity, even as global investment in the sector is set to hit $3 trillion over the next five years.
That contrast was revealed in a new report, which shows the continent is building fast, but still lagging.
The study, Data Centres in Africa 2026, says Africa’s total installed capacity is expected to triple to about 1.2 gigawatts (GW) of IT load by 2030.
But then, this growth will track global expansion rather than close the gap. The United States alone hosts about 45% of the world’s data centres.
Globally, the data centre market was valued at $243 billion in 2025 and is projected to double by 2032.
Artificial intelligence is a primary driver. McKinsey estimates AI training and inference could triple global demand for data centre capacity by 2030, with 70% of new demand linked to AI workloads.
In comparison, Africa’s footprint is small. The continent has between 220 and 230 facilities spread across 38 countries.
Capacity is concentrated in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya and Egypt. Most African data is still stored abroad, mainly in Europe and North America.
That reliance brings the risks. Data hosted overseas falls under foreign laws. The report points to the U.S. CLOUD Act, which allows American authorities to compel companies under U.S. jurisdiction to hand over data, regardless of where it is physically stored.
This leaves governments and businesses in Africa asking who really controls their data and whether they truly have authority over it.
More than 40 African countries have enacted data protection laws, and 19 have ratified the Malabo Convention on cybersecurity and data protection.
However, enforcement capacity usually lags behind legislation. Investors now see regulatory clarity as an important factor in deciding where to build.
Dr Ayotunde Coker, CEO of Open Access Data Centres, said: “Africa’s path to data sovereignty depends on building local processing power, sustainable energy use, and AI capacity that reflects the continent’s own priorities and realities.”
AI is changing the direction. In April 2025, African states adopted the Africa Declaration on Artificial Intelligence in Kigali.
The declaration commits $60 billion towards continental AI ambitions and led to the creation of an Africa AI Council made up of seven ICT ministers and eight independent members.
So far, 15 African countries have adopted a national AI strategy or policy. Still, infrastructure is not satisfactory.
According to the report, outside South Africa, only about one-third of built data centre capacity is fully utilised. Even in South Africa, 74% of capacity is fitted out and in use.
Operators say they are building ahead of demand, planning on 10- to 20-year horizons.
The demand side is still uneven. While 47% of Africans are mobile subscribers, only 28% use mobile internet.
In some low-income countries, internet access can take up to 26.4% of average monthly income. The physical coverage gap has narrowed to 9%, but the usage gap stands at 64%.
At the same time, data consumption per smartphone in sub-Saharan Africa averages about 6.7GB per month, far below the global average of 21.6GB.
The International Finance Corporation estimates that doubling undersea cable capacity could cut bandwidth prices by 30 to 50%. Even moderate price drops could push usage steeply higher.
Connectivity is expanding. Africa’s terrestrial fibre network reached about 1.3 million kilometres in 2025, up from 1 million kilometres in 2019.
The World Bank approved $500 million in late 2025 to deploy a further 90,000 kilometres of fibre. Egypt now connects to more than 19 subsea cable systems, Djibouti to 12, and South Africa to 11.
However, access to computing power is limited. Latency from African users to major cloud regions abroad usually exceeds 70 to 100 milliseconds, compared with less than 20 milliseconds in mature markets.
Where local cloud regions exist, such as in South Africa, median latency falls to between 35 and 45 milliseconds.
The report describes this as a “compute divide”. It argues that competitiveness will depend more on where computing capacity sits and how close it is to users, not just connectivity,
Investment is flowing in response. Hyperscalers and technology investors are estimated to have committed between $2.5 billion and $4 billion to African data centres in recent years.
Development finance institutions have put in an estimated $1.5 billion to $2 billion since 2016. Commercial banks, private equity firms and sovereign investors have also stepped up.
Private equity-backed platforms such as Raxio and Actis-backed Digital Realty have pursued regional expansion. Telecom-linked operators including Africa Data Centres, Nxtra by Airtel and STELLARIX are carving out carrier-neutral facilities while leveraging existing fibre networks.
Governments are building national facilities as well. Nigeria’s Galaxy Backbone, Ghana’s National Data Centre, Rwanda’s National Data Centre and state-backed projects in Ethiopia and Togo aim to anchor government cloud services and sensitive public data locally.
The economics are demanding, with building a standard Tier III facility globally now costing about $11.3 million per megawatt.
For AI-ready sites, tenant fit-out costs alone can reach $15 million to $25 million per megawatt. In Africa, operators face additional expenses linked to power back-up systems and imported equipment, with generators sometimes taking up to 18 months to deliver.
Occupancy can also take time. The report says it may take up to eight years for a new African data centre to reach 85% occupancy.
Yashnath Issur, CEO of Nxtra by Airtel Africa, said: “Developing large-scale infrastructure, such as a 40-MW data centre, fundamentally transforms the economic model of the industry.
“Beyond unlocking significant economies of scale in both construction and operations, this level of capacity also strengthens our position when negotiating long-term power purchase agreements. The result is greater cost predictability, improved energy security, and a more resilient foundation for sustainable growth.”
Talent is another pressure point, with Uptime Institute projecting the global industry will require 2.5 million full-time staff by the end of 2025.
In Africa, 39% of operators quote retention of skilled staff as their main human resources challenge. In Nigeria, that figure reaches 67%.
To respond, experts launched the Data Centre Talent Project for Africa in 2025. The three-month programme aims to enrol more than 100 engineering graduates in its pilot phase across Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa, with at least 30 job placements in the first cycle.
Despite the challenges, the report concludes that Africa’s digital economy could reach $1.5 trillion by 2030.
For that to happen, Africa data centre capacity will need to move from scarce infrastructure to becoming a reliable, local backbone for cloud services, AI and public systems.
