The WIOCC Group company can now boast of faster capacity deployment, higher‑density workloads and scalable growth without operational disruption.

Originally deployed by Vertiv as a prefabricated, modular, Tier III-compliant data centre for a pan-African telecommunications provider, the Parklands facility was designed to support phased expansion and evolving workload requirements.

By standardising on Vertiv infrastructure, OADC can accelerate deployments, support higher‑density customer workloads and expand data centre capacity without major redesign.

The facility uses integrated Vertiv power protection, thermal management, containment, and energy storage, designed to adapt to changing load profiles, improve energy efficiency, and support long-term scalability.

Today, Parklands supports hyperscaler and AI-driven organisations, where power density, thermal efficiency and deployment agility are critical. The IDC 8 data hall provides a modular, scalable infrastructure foundation designed to support evolving requirements while maintaining efficient operations.

The recently commissioned IDC 10 hall builds on this approach, extending the same modular architecture into a traditional build while maintaining performance, flexibility and product consistency for a broad mix of enterprise needs, helping customers scale confidently as demand grows.

Marc Matthews, engineering director and head of projects at OADC, says:

“OADC made an executive decision to standardise on Vertiv infrastructure solutions. The Vertiv brand essentially sells itself; we don’t have to convince our clients of Vertiv efficiencies, which builds confidence from the outset. Vertiv’s technology is tried and tested, with an excellent reputation. Beyond the equipment itself, the local Vertiv team has also played a critical role in supporting our strategy, reinforcing OADC’s decision to appoint Vertiv as one of our preferred vendors.”

Gary Chomse, regional director for Central and Southern Africa at Vertiv, adds:

“Parklands reflects a broader shift in data centre design across Africa to prioritise flexibility, scalability and efficiency. By combining prefabricated modular infrastructure with high-performance power and cooling technologies, Vertiv is helping OADC scale capacity while maintaining operational resilience and efficiency.”

The post Vertiv Enables OADC to Scale AI, Hyperscale Workloads at Jo’burg Data Centre appeared first on Tech | Business | Economy.

This new facility is secured through sustainability-linked debt financing arranged by IFC, Proparco, Emerging Africa Infrastructure and Asia Infrastructure Fund (EAAIF) and Ninety-One.

It will fund WIOCC Group’s ongoing expansion of connectivity capacity and digital infrastructure across Africa.

Samuel Ndungu, CFO of WIOCC Group, commented:

“This new financing underscores the continued confidence of our development finance partners in WIOCC Group’s long-term growth strategy and our role in driving Africa’s digital transformation. The additional capital enables us to further scale our network infrastructure, extend our data centre footprint and enhance the resilience and capacity of our pan-African digital ecosystem. Through this, we remain steadfast in our commitment to enabling digital inclusion and making an enduring contribution to the development of Africa’s digital economy.”

Chris Wood, CEO of WIOCC Group, also commented:

“This additional financing represents another significant step forward in advancing the resilient, scalable and open-access digital infrastructure required to support Africa’s growth. It strengthens our ability to execute on our long-term vision, expand our hyperscale network and data centre footprint, and continue building the continent’s most open, interconnected digital ecosystem. We are grateful for the continued confidence of our funding partners and remain fully committed to supporting the growth, innovation and digital inclusion that will shape Africa’s future.”

Also speaking, Sarvesh Suri, IFC’s regional industry director for Infrastructure and Natural Resources, Africa, said:

“IFC is proud to deepen its long-standing partnership with WIOCC Group as they scale Africa’s digital infrastructure. Through a blend of USD and ZAR financing, we are supporting WIOCC in optimizing its capital structure, mitigating currency risk, and accelerating investments in resilient, open-access networks. This commitment reflects our strategy to expand connectivity and data center capacity across the continent—advancing digital inclusion to drive job creation and economic growth.”

Puleng Pitso, investment specialist, Ninety-One, the fund manager for EAAIF, has this to say:

“Digital connectivity is one of the most powerful enablers of economic growth in Africa. By expanding access to high-speed internet, we are unlocking opportunities for entrepreneurs, small businesses, and industries to thrive in the digital economy. EAAIF and Ninety One’s investment in WIOCC will help strengthen the foundations for inclusive growth, job creation, and innovation across the continent.”

Françoise Lombard, CEO of Proparco, said:

“The AFD Group has been supporting WIOCC since its inception back in 2007. Proparco is very proud to reinforce the long-standing partnership with this flagship African player at a time when it has successfully evolved into a diversified digital infrastructure platform. By supporting WIOCC’s expansion across terrestrial fiber, submarine cables and open-access data centers, Proparco is helping strengthen a leading network that carries an important part of Africa’s internet traffic. This new financing, arranged alongside IFC and Ninety-One, will contribute to accelerating resilient, energy-efficient connectivity solutions in markets where reliable digital services are essential for economic transformation.”

Since its inception in 2008, the Group has deployed more than USD $750 million in digital infrastructure, including the linking of open-access data centres via hyperscale connectivity, fundamentally transforming the cost, reliability, and nature of communications across the continent.

As WIOCC expands its footprint, this latest financing reinforces its focus on building a resilient, inclusive, and future-ready carrier-neutral digital ecosystem.

The post WIOCC Group Secures Additional $65 Million Debt Raise Led by IFC, Proparco, others appeared first on Tech | Business | Economy.

And for businesses, this gap means higher expenses, slower access to cloud services and limited ability to scale competitively.

Today, Open Access Data Centres (OADC), a WIOCC Group company, launched Open Access Fabric (OAfabric) in Nigeria (OADC Lagos) and the Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC (OADC Texaf – Kinshasa), to leapfrog these limitations and position Nigeria as Africa’s digital nerve centre.

With over 107 million internet users, Nigeria represents the continent’s largest digital market, but enterprises have long had challenges with high latency, expensive transit, and inconsistent local content access. 

The game-changing interconnection platform, OAfabric directly addresses these challenges, providing secure, low-latency connections, direct peering with global cloud providers, and integration with leading African IXPs, including IXPN in Nigeria and KINIX in the DRC.

Speaking at the launch, Dr Ayotunde Coker, chief executive officer of OADC, said “We designed OAfabric around the real challenges African businesses face. It is about solving problems – reducing the cost to compute, improving performance, unlocking access to cloud and content, and creating an environment where companies can scale with confidence while accelerating time to market.”

OAfabric is engineered to scale from 1Gbps to 100Gbps, supporting hybrid colocation architectures, AI workloads, and data-intensive applications. Traditionally, enterprises had to rely on the open internet, risking security breaches and inconsistent performance. Coker highlighted the platform’s protective advantage:

“Without OAfabric, if you want to go to the cloud, you basically have to go to the open internet. All of us understand the disadvantages of pushing your content into the open internet. Companies now have to start building layers of security, all the years of security. 

“But with OAfabric, it is a secured connection, structural cable connection from here all the way into the cloud environment, irrespective of where you are. So you are guaranteed that literally, for someone to hack, he has to use a source and come back in. It’s extremely secure connectivity.”

Resilient, Reliable, and Rapid

The platform’s resilience was demonstrated last year during a subsea cable disruption. OADC restored 2 terabytes of connectivity within 48 hours, a project that would normally take three months, stressing the network’s ability to maintain Africa’s digital backbone under extreme pressure.

Latency is dramatically reduced, a huge factor for enterprises in fintech, cloud services, and AI. Coker explained:

“We deliver a significant, well-reliable, low-latency connection. Latency between here and points in Europe, for instance, is significantly reduced. You can interconnect into Amsterdam, the UK, Marseille. We define with cloud providers exactly where we want to meet them and cross-connect very neatly, and it has a significant result on latency.”

Since 2018, OADC has expanded strategically across the continent. The Lagos data centre in Lekki currently operates at 2 megawatts, with plans to scale to 24 megawatts. 

Facilities in Kinshasa and four South African cities—Durban, Johannesburg, and Cape Town—serve as interconnection points for global subsea cables including Google Aquiano and 2Africa, creating a robust pan-African network.

Coker elaborated that “OAfabric gives us a more efficient way of delivering growth, not just in one direction, but with the capability to reverse the direction as we have more internet exchanges here, localising data. As we bring more actual cloud on-ramps into the country, we build the infrastructure for those hyperscale ramps to come here, and that’s what we’re doing.”

OAfabric aligns with Nigeria’s mega cloud policy, ensuring sensitive data remains within national borders while empowering local cloud providers to compete with international hyperscalers. It also opens the Nigerian market to foreign investment, enabling cloud edge zones and disaster recovery zones to be deployed with speed and confidence.

Head of Converged Open and Digital Infrastructure, OADC Africa, Obinna Adumike, explained the reach of OAfabric beyond Nigeria and DRC:

“OAfabric is big, and it’s here. We have a very robust connectivity network, and the biggest advantage of that is the fact that WIOCC network can connect you to any country in the world, but most especially the closest continents that Africa impacts on; Africa, Europe, America, and then within the continent, East Africa, Southern Africa and all of that. These are the regions that most of our cloud users either connect to, send, or collect traffic.”

Simplifying Complexity for Enterprises

For businesses, OAfabric transforms previously complex digital operations into seamless, manageable workflows. Coker expatiated this:

“Think of OAfabric as a box in a data centre. You connect to it, choose your pipe size—like deciding between a two-lane or four-lane highway—and your data flows efficiently to the cloud. The faster and more reliable the connection, the better the user experience.”

“OAfabric is not just infrastructure; it represents a shift in what is possible for Africa’s digital economy,” added Dr Coker. “By removing barriers and enabling seamless, high-performance peering between key ecosystems, including local and global Internet Exchange Points (IXPs), content providers, cloud platforms and enterprises, it provides the frictionless interconnection needed to access digital services more efficiently.”

With OAfabric live in Nigeria and the DRC, OADC is creating a resilient, secure, and scalable pan-African digital ecosystem, empowering enterprises, accelerating innovation, and defining a new era of African digital sovereignty.

The post OADC Launches OAfabric in Nigeria, DRC to Drive Africa’s $712bn Digital Economy, Cloud Growth appeared first on Tech | Business | Economy.

This collaboration aims to accelerate the development of Nigeria’s digital economy through substantial investments in critical digital infrastructure and comprehensive stakeholder engagement.

The partnership, formalized through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), marks a significant milestone in the efforts to enhance digital connectivity and inclusion across Nigeria.

Represented by Dr. ‘Bosun Tijani, the minister, and Mr. Darren Bedford, WIOCC Group’s chief development officer, the agreement outlines a shared vision for fostering technical efficiency and collective prosperity.

The partnership focuses on enhancing stakeholder engagement by jointly reviewing and improving the National Policy on Telecommunications to meet digital economy needs.

WIOCC Group commits to investing in Nigeria’s digital infrastructure, deploying a hyperscale open-access digital platform for internet service providers (ISPs) with advanced fibre and colocation facilities.

Additionally, through this partnership, the collaboration with the Nigerian Broadband Alliance for Nigeria aims to improve broadband quality and accessibility, with WIOCC expanding fibre infrastructure and partnering with ISPs to connect more homes and businesses.

The partnership also includes WIOCC providing digital infrastructure training and supporting job creation for Nigerian youth.

Commenting on the partnership, Mr. Darren Bedford, WIOCC group’s chief business development officer, said,

“The MoU with the Ministry of Communications underscores our commitment to supporting Nigeria’s digital transformation, by working together, we aim to create a robust digital ecosystem that benefits all stakeholders and drives sustainable economic growth”.

Dr ‘Bosun Tijani stated that,

“This collaboration with WIOCC Group represents a significant step forward in our commitment to ensuring that Nigerians have access to reliable and high-quality telecommunications services. We are committed to building a resilient digital infrastructure that fosters innovation, inclusion, and economic growth. Working with the private sector to deliver last-mile connectivity to homes and businesses, amongst other key benefits, is essential to achieving this vision, and we are excited about the opportunities this collaboration creates for empowering communities across Nigeria”.

The post WIOCC Group to Work with Nigerian Government to Accelerate Nigeria’s Digital Economy appeared first on Tech | Business | Economy.

The workshop brought together   enthusiastic students from Filerose Academy and Sammy Bright School for a day of immersive learning and hands-on experience in various STEM fields.

The workshop featured a comprehensive programme that included robotics, 3D printing and drone flying training sessions.

These activities were designed to ignite the students’ interest in STEM and provide them with practical skills that are essential in the 21st-century technological landscape. The students were given the unique opportunity to develop their STEM skills through interactive sessions facilitated by professionals. The workshops were meticulously designed to be engaging and informative, ensuring that each participant could fully benefit from the experience.

In the robotics session, students learned the basics of designing, building and programming robots, fostering critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

The 3D printing workshop allowed students to explore the exciting possibilities of manufacturing, enabling them to create and print their own designs.

The drone flying training introduced the participants to the principles of drone technology, including hands-on flight practice and discussions on the applications of drones in various industries.

Commenting on the event, Adesola Adesugba, country marketing manager (Nigeria) at WIOCC Group, said,

“We are thrilled to have partnered with Readland Global to organise this STEM workshop. Our goal was to inspire and equip the next generation of innovators with the skills they need to thrive in a rapidly evolving technological world. The enthusiasm and creativity displayed by the students were truly inspiring. We are confident that this experience will have a lasting impact on their academic and career pursuits.”

The collaboration between WIOCC Group and Readland Global underscores both organisations’ commitment to fostering education and innovation in Nigeria.

By providing students with access to cutting-edge technology and expert guidance, they aim to bridge the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical application, preparing young minds for future challenges and opportunities.

The post WIOCC Group, Readland Global Host Successful STEM Workshop in Lagos appeared first on Tech | Business | Economy.

The financing includes loans of $10 million and ZAR 200 million (about USD$11) from IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, and $20 million from Proparco, a development finance institution and subsidiary of the Agence Française de Développement Group.

WIOCC expects to sign an additional $10 million loan for its expansion in Nigeria with RMB in the next few weeks.

With the funding, WIOCC Group will expand its core and edge data centres in the DRC, Nigeria, and South Africa to meet growing demand for colocation and other data centre services.

It will also grow its fibre networks, helping bridge the digital divide, and fostering economic growth across Africa.

The financing is structured as a sustainability-linked debt, with pricing linked to WIOCC’s commitment to improve the energy efficiency of its data centres and obtain EDGE green building certification for them. EDGE, an innovation of IFC, makes it easy to design and certify resource-efficient and zero carbon buildings.

“We are excited to conclude this next stage of our capital raise, which will enable significant expansion, adding further capacity to our open-access data centre operation and extending open-access hyperscale national, international, and metro connectivity across our key markets in Nigeria, southern Africa, the DRC and Greater East and Central Africa,” said Chris Wood, CEO of WIOCC Group. “Our policy of continual investment in infrastructure to create Africa’s first, truly open-access interconnected digital ecosystem means ongoing investment for growth, ensuring readiness to meet the future demands of our clients’ customers throughout Africa.”

“The Agence Française de Développement Group have been supporting WIOCC since its inception back in 2007,” said Ariane Ducreux, head of Energy, Digital and Infrastructure at PROPARCO.

“We are very proud to pursue this long-term partnership by supporting the expansion of the Open Access Data Centres’ activities in Nigeria, South Africa, DRC and beyond. Truly neutral and open-access data centres are the cornerstone of a diversified digital ecosystem. Local data storage and processing capacity are also vital for the resilience of Africa’s digital network, as recent outages have demonstrated. The sustainability-linked structure of this new financing, along with technical assistance support, also aims to incentivize the rollout of energy and water efficient data centres, while adapting implementations to the specs of each site environment,” Ducreux said.

“Our long-standing partnership with WIOCC of more than 15 years demonstrates IFC’s commitment to increasing affordable and reliable digital connectivity in Africa through shared infrastructure. This new debt facility will help WIOCC fulfil its ambition to establish an integrated, open-access, core-to-edge cloud ecosystem throughout the African continent, which is critical to bridge the digital divide,” said Bertrand de la Borde, IFC Global Industry Director of infrastructure.

“RMB is thrilled to be a Strategic Banking Partner to WIOCC. Digital Infrastructure is one of our core sectors of expertise as a Bank.  As such, we are excited at the opportunity to support this deal and remain committed to partnering with WIOCC on its growth journey across the continent,” said Chidi Iwuchukwu, head of Investment Banking, Broader Africa – RMB.

Since its inception in 2007, WIOCC has been investing in Africa’s digital backbone, delivering open-access infrastructure to meet the growing demand for reliable connectivity solutions throughout the continent.

As WIOCC Group continues to transform digital Africa, this latest capital raise signifies a major milestone in its journey towards building a more connected Africa, fostering long-term partnerships and sustainability.

The post WIOCC Group Secures over $50m from IFC, Proparco and RMB to Expand Digital Infrastructure in Africa appeared first on Tech | Business | Economy.

The visit to Sammy Bright School underscores WIOCC Group’s commitment to fostering education and empowering the next generation of African leaders in technology and innovation.

During the visit, executives engaged with students, sharing insights into the importance of STEM education and the myriad of opportunities available in these fields.

“We are thrilled to have had the opportunity to interact with the bright young minds at Sammy Bright School and encourage them to explore careers in STEM,” said Ryan Sher, Chief Operations Officer at WIOCC Group. “As a company deeply rooted in Africa, we recognise the critical role that STEM education plays in driving innovation, economic growth, and sustainable development across the continent.”

The executives conducted interactive sessions with the students, highlighting real-world applications of STEM disciplines and sharing personal anecdotes to inspire and motivate the students. Through engaging presentations and discussions, they emphasised the significance of developing problem-solving skills, critical thinking, and creativity, all of which are essential attributes for success in STEM fields. Representatives from WIOCC Group included: Nikki Popoola, Director of Sales West Africa & DRC, Adesola Adesugba, Country Marketing Manager, Yvonne Okonkwo, HR Manager as well as Sales Managers Robert Ogbomo and Linda Mbaba.

Working with its Partner, Readland Global, WIOCC decided to select Sammy Bright School after looking at various other schools for the 2024 CSR because it fulfilled the requirements that it had set out in its CSR mission. Founded in 2011, Sammy Bright School currently accommodates 270 students.

“The parents of our students are facing economic challenges, but despite this, we strive to maintain a peaceful environment,” explains Mr. Temitope Adebambo, the School’s founder. “We are deeply honoured that WIOCC Group has selected us for its Q1 2024 CSR Project. Their visit, along with the presence of their executives, has been invaluable. By facilitating our students’ visit to a data centre and providing much-needed assistance, they have made a meaningful impact on our school.”

WIOCC Group’s CSR initiative at Sammy Bright School reflects the company’s broader commitment to social responsibility and community development.

By investing in education and empowering young minds, WIOCC Group aims to create a lasting impact on the communities it serves, driving positive change and prosperity across Africa.

More about WIOCC Group

• WIOCC Group, the parent company of WIOCC, Africa’s digital backbone; Open Access Data Centres (OADC), Africa’s fastest-growing data centre company; and Open Access Technical Services (OATS), a leading provider of holistic managed network and infrastructure services in Africa; is pioneering and accelerating Africa’s digital transformation.
• It is creating an environment in which all Africans can take advantage of world-class technology developments to build better lives, better businesses, and a better world, by deploying converged open-access digital infrastructure (CODI) across Africa; infrastructure that will expedite and underpin Africa’s digital transformation.

The post WIOCC, OADC Drive STEM Inspiration among Lagos Students appeared first on Tech | Business | Economy.

The new investment will support WIOCC Group’s continued rollout of terrestrial fiber-optic networks, investment in new subsea cables, and the launch of world-class, open-access core and edge data center infrastructure across the continent.

Digital infrastructure is the backbone of Africa’s internet economy. Ongoing investment in fiber optic networks and data centers will allow increased access to more affordable and higher-speed internet across the African continent, according to eConomy Africa 2020, a report by IFC and Google.

This expanded access could yield significant economic gains: a 10 percent increase in mobile broadband penetration in Africa would yield a 2.5 percent increase in GDP per capita, notes a study by the International Telecommunication Union.

“At IFC, we recognize that there is a critical need for reliable digital infrastructure, which is fundamental to improving the quality of people’s lives and driving business growth,” said Mohamed Gouled, IFC Vice President of Industries, during a signing ceremony with WIOCC Group today in London. “In the past fiscal year, ending in June 2022, IFC invested $1.3 billion in digital infrastructure, with over half of those investments taking place in Africa’s telecommunications, media, and technology sector. Our partnership with WIOCC Group underscores IFC’s commitment to closing the digital divide in Africa.”

IFC’s equity investment builds on its previous financing to WIOCC Group, in the form of a $20 million loan issued in 2020 via IFC’s fast-track COVID-19 financing facility, a facility set up to help sustain economies and preserve jobs during the pandemic crisis.

“IFC is a true strategic partner that has been there for us since the start. IFC’s role as one of the founding lenders in 2007 was critical in enabling WIOCC Group to grow and thrive. This new investment supports our goal of establishing an integrated, open-access, core-to-edge cloud ecosystem throughout the African continent, underpinned by truly scalable, carrier-neutral, open access, shared infrastructure that delivers high-quality and affordable digital connectivity,” said Chris Wood, WIOCC Group Chief Executive Officer. “By decentralizing the cloud and enabling content delivery to the point of use, we are establishing the infrastructure required to expedite successful deployment and adoption of 5G, the Internet of Things and other key developments that will deliver economic growth throughout the 2020s.”

IFC’s digital infrastructure strategy in Africa is aimed at enabling reliable, and affordable connectivity. This includes investing in the growth of independent tower operators, data centers and broadband, as well as supporting mobile operators, with an emphasis on supporting expanded connectivity in fragile and conflict situations (FCS) and low-Income International Development Association countries (LIC-IDA).

In the past fiscal year (July 1, 2021–June 2022), 34 percent of IFC’s digital infrastructure investments were in FCS and IDA countries.

Over the last decade, IFC committed and mobilized more than $7 billion in digital infrastructure and services, with more than $2.5 billion between July 2020 and June 2022. In addition to providing financing, IFC supports investees to improve corporate governance and align environmental and social practices with IFC’s performance standards.

The post WIOCC Group Secures $30 million Equity Investment from IFC appeared first on Tech | Business | Economy.