Under this partnership, UniCloud Africa will host its enterprise-grade sovereign cloud and Artificial Intelligence (AI) infrastructure within OADC’s world-class, carrier-neutral facilities in Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Africa.

This collaboration establishes a robust, localised foundation for governments and enterprises to modernise their operations while ensuring absolute data residency and regulatory compliance.

Advancing the “One Cloud, One Africa” Vision

The partnership aligns with UniCloud Africa’s “One Cloud, One Africa” strategy, which seeks to eliminate the high-latency and compliance risks associated with offshore cloud providers.

By utilizing OADC’s Tier-III certified infrastructure, UniCloud Africa provides a high-performance environment for mission-critical workloads, supported by a contractual Tier-III certified uptime SLA.

“Our mission is to provide the definitive foundation for Africa’s digital and economic independence,” said Dr. Krish Ranganath, CEO of UniCloud Africa. “By hosting our sovereign infrastructure within OADC’s world-class facilities, we are ensuring that African data remains on African soil. This partnership empowers our clients with low-latency access, local currency billing, and the security of ISO-certified, in-country data management that is tailor-made for the continent’s unique requirements.”

A Multi-Market Digital Backbone

OADC’s extensive footprint provides UniCloud Africa with the scale needed to serve key economic hubs:

• Nigeria: Leveraging OADC Lagos’s campus to support the country’s booming fintech and enterprise sectors
• DRC: Providing much-needed local cloud capacity in Kinshasa to drive the nation’s digital acceleration
• South Africa: Utilising OADC’s expanded national footprint and distributed scale to deliver resilient, geographically separated primary and disaster recovery solutions

“We firmly believe that fully localised cloud infrastructure is critical for economic growth and Africa’s digital future,” added Dr Ayotunde Coker, CEO of OADC. “OADC is committed to providing the essential building blocks for a truly unified African digital ecosystem. Partnering with UniCloud Africa allows us to support a platform that is driving the next wave of innovation, from AI acceleration to cost-predictability.”

Empowering the Next Wave of Innovation

Beyond standard infrastructure, the partnership will support the deployment of UniCloud’s GPU-as-a-Service (GPUaaS), enabling local organisations to harness the power of AI, Machine Learning, and Big Data at scale.

With zero data egress fees and billing in local currencies, the collaboration removes the financial barriers often posed by global cloud giants.

He announced the move in a LinkedIn post on Monday, confirming he had stepped into the leadership role as the company expands across Africa’s fast-growing cloud infrastructure market.

“I’m happy to share that I’m starting a new role as Chief Executive Officer at UniCloud Africa Limited. Throughout my career, I’ve championed a dual-track approach: scaling technological breakthroughs while maintaining rigorous operational excellence.”

He continued, “UniCloud sits at the epicentre of Africa’s cloud evolution. We are committed to deploying 100% sovereign infrastructure across the continent, and I am driven to lead our strategic expansion across several vital markets.”

“My focus is on driving high-growth partnerships and scaling the next generation of resilient, sustainable cloud infrastructure.”

He added that instantaneous changes in technology and energy will impact the next phase of digital development across Africa.

“While the challenges from Al integration to the green energy transition are immense, the opportunities are greater. I am eager to collaborate with our partners and customers to redefine the digital frontier and accelerate the evolution of the African digital ecosystem.”

Dr Krishnan Ranganath moves into the role after more than five years at Africa Data Centres, one of the continent’s largest data centre operators.

During that period, he oversaw the company’s expansion in West Africa, helping to grow its infrastructure footprint in Nigeria and neighbouring markets as demand for cloud services increased.

When he earlier confirmed his departure from the company, he reflected on the work done in the region.

“What started as a mission to navigate the complexities of a new market has evolved into a chapter of immense growth. We didn’t just build data centres; we built the foundation for West Africa’s digital future.”

The leadership change comes at a time when Africa’s cloud and data infrastructure sector is entering a new phase of growth.

Data show the continent’s data centre and cloud infrastructure market could expand from about $2.2 billion in 2026 to more than $4.3 billion by 2031, driven by demand from banks, telecom companies, governments and fast-growing digital businesses.

Capacity demand is also increasing with projections that Africa’s data-centre power capacity will climb from about 0.4 gigawatts today to between 1.5 and 2.2 gigawatts by 2030, a change that could attract between $10 billion and $20 billion in new investment across the continent.

Another change impacting the industry is the growing focus on sovereign cloud infrastructure. Governments across Africa are pushing for data generated locally to remain within national borders, a policy aimed at strengthening digital sovereignty and protecting critical systems.

In Nigeria, technology regulators, such as the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), have been working on frameworks designed to consolidate government digital systems into a nationally governed cloud environment. This aims to secure sensitive public data while encouraging local infrastructure development.

Nonetheless, cloud adoption in Nigeria is still behind compared to developed markets. Estimates show that by 2025 only about 35% of Nigerian enterprises had moved to cloud platforms, compared with roughly 60% in South Africa.

However, adoption is increasing as new data centres, fibre networks and local cloud services come online.

Dr Krishnan Ranganath now steps into the leadership of UniCloud Africa at a moment when competition for Africa’s digital infrastructure market is getting stronger.

The company positions itself around sovereign cloud architecture, local infrastructure ownership and energy-efficient systems designed to support Africa’s growing digital economy.

His appointment also follows earlier recognitions. In February 2026, he received the Icon of Innovation and Digital Transformation in Africa award at the CIO and C-Suite Awards, acknowledging his work in expanding digital infrastructure and technology partnerships across the continent.

Dr Ranganath is now focused on scaling cloud capacity across multiple African markets while building partnerships with governments, telecom operators and enterprises moving their systems online.

“UniCloud sits at the epicentre of Africa’s cloud evolution. We are committed to deploying 100% sovereign infrastructure across the continent. My focus is on driving high-growth partnerships and scaling the next generation of resilient, sustainable cloud infrastructure to accelerate the evolution of the African digital ecosystem,” said Dr. Krish, CEO of UniCloud Africa Limited.

He disclosed that his focus at UniCloud Africa is on driving high-growth partnerships and scaling the next generation of resilient, sustainable cloud infrastructure, and will deploy GPUs in certain economies based on market potential and need.

While admitting that the challenges from AI integration to the green energy transition are immense, Dr Krish believes that the opportunities are greater.

“I am eager to collaborate with our partners and customers to redefine the digital frontier and accelerate the evolution of the African digital ecosystem,” he added.

Ladi Okuneye, Co-founder and outgoing CEO (who remains as a director on the board) remarked:

“As we enter this new chapter of growth, I am confident that Dr Krish’s extensive experience in the African digital landscape will add immense value. His technical depth and regional insight make him the ideal leader to drive UniCloud Africa forward.”

Operating under the powerful mission of “One Cloud, One Africa”, this launch is powered by a strategic partnership with TouchNet, a leading Africa Technology Services provider whose extensive experience in delivering cutting-edge technology infrastructure across Africa, ensuring UniCloudAfrica’s platform is built on a robust, scalable foundation tailored to the continent’s unique needs.

It immediately provides African enterprises and governments with a world-class, highly certified, financially optimized, and fully compliant alternative to expensive, high-latency offshore cloud providers.

The announcement was made at a media briefing in Lagos, where Mr Ladi Okuneye, CEO of Unicloud Africa, declared “The platform is the foundation for Africa’s true Digital and Financial Independence”.

The Unicloud Africa Advantage: Performance, Compliance, and Cost Certainty

Unicloud Africa’s platform is engineered to solve the most critical pain points for African businesses by delivering on three core pillars:

1. Financial Sovereignty and Predictable Costs

We eliminate the financial uncertainty and hidden costs that hinder growth:

• Local Currency Billing: Enterprises can now pay for world-class cloud services in their local currency, eliminating the burden of foreign exchange (FX) volatility and unpredictable costs.
• Zero Data Egress Fees: We guarantee no data egress fees, ensuring predictable monthly billing and allowing businesses to retrieve their own data freely, a major cost differentiator.
• OpEx Model: The platform is delivered on a flexible, pay-per-use, OpEx model, freeing up business capital by removing the need for significant CapEx on IT infrastructure.

2. Certified Security and Guaranteed Resilience

Unicloud Africa is built on global standards of trust and compliance:

• Sovereign Data Compliance: All sensitive data, particularly for AI/ML and Big Data, is guaranteed to be hosted and processed 100% in-country. This is critical for regulatory adherence in finance, healthcare, and government across Africa.
• Maximum Uptime: Our architecture delivers two active-active availability zones and features a contractual 999% SLA on storage, providing the unmatched resilience required for mission-critical enterprise workloads.
• Global Certifications: The platform operates under the highest global standards, including ISO 27001 (Information Security) and ISO 22301 (Business Continuity).

3. AI Acceleration and Technical Leadership

“We are democratizing access to the computing power needed for the next wave of innovation”, the CEO said.

From use cases where financial services are enabled with real-time fraud detection to accelerating medical research through AI-driven analytics, UnicloudAfrica’s GPUaaS empowers organizations to harness AI at scale:

• GPU-as-a-Service (GPUaaS): High-performance, GPU-enabled cloud servers are available on demand, providing the specialized compute power needed to run complex AI models and large-scale applications.
• Developer Compatibility: Our services are compatible and provide a familiar feature set that aligns with leading global cloud platform environments, ensuring rapid adoption by local and international development teams.

“A Strategic Shift for African Competitiveness”

“For too long, African enterprises have been held back by the financial burden and compliance risks of offshore cloud platforms,” said Mr Ladi Okuneye, CEO of Unicloud Africa.

“This is a strategic shift. We are providing world-class infrastructure, backed by local currency billing, zero egress fees, and the peace of mind of ISO-certified, in-country data management. Unicloud Africa is the definitive foundation for Africa’s true digital and financial independence.“

“By partnering with Unicloud Africa, TouchNet is directly accelerating Africa’s digital transformation. We are delivering secure, scalable, and locally optimized AI Cloud infrastructure that empowers businesses and governments to modernize operations, drive innovation, and secure their data locally. This platform is a testament to our commitment to a connected and sovereign Africa”, said Mr Charly Bahous CEO of TouchNet.

Dr Ayotunde Coker, CEO of OADC also mentioned

”We firmly believe that fully localised cloud infrastructure is critical for economic growth and Africa’s digital future. This is why OADC is fully committed to collaborating with and providing all needed support to partners like UniCloud Africa, who are key to realizing a truly unified African digital ecosystem.”