OADC commits to $500m investment as Lagos data centre goes live
Chief Marketing Officer, WIOCC GROUP, Mike Last (left); Director, Sales- West Africa, Nikki Popoola; Chief Executive Officer, Open Access Data Centre, Dr. Ayotunde Coker; Country Marketing Manager, WIOCC Group, Adesola Adesugba and Director, Business Development, WIOCC, Slawomir Cieslinski, during an interaction with the media in Lagos.
• Only 1% of global data centre resides in Lagos, says Coker
• Firm tasks FG on progressive policies to boost sub-sector
Open Access Data Centres (OADC), a WIOCC Group Company has reiterated its commitment to fully implement its planned $500 million inv estment in data centre infrastructure in Africa, made in 2021, for a five-year period.
To show its commitment, the firm said it has completed the first phase of its $150 million Data Centre facility in Lagos.
The OADC Lagos LOS1 is a purpose-built, high specification data centre, situated on a prime four-hectares site in Lekki, making it the largest data centre campus in West Africa.
The carrier neutral facility will deliver up to 20megawatts site load across more than 7,200m (square) of white space-sufficient for 3,200 racks.
While addressing journalists in Lagos, the Chief Executive Office, OADC Lagos, Dr. Ayotunde Coker, said the facility with multiple carrier Points of Presence with diverse routes is part of the company’s milestone for Africa that will strengthen key elements of the continent’s digital infrastructure.
Coker, who disclosed that only one per cent of global data centres are in Africa with half of that residing in South Africa, said the company has set a 2026 target to complete the Lagos Data Centre campus, adding that it has plans to establish 30 Edge Data Centres in the region.
Coker explained that OADC is massively developing its infrastructure to support and accelerate Africa’s digital transformation by constructing and operating a Pan-African network of world-class, client-centric data centre facilities.
He said that Africa’s largest network infrastructure is specifically designed to meet the demands of telcos, Internet service providers (ISPs), the cloud operator and wholesale community and major enterprises such as finance and governments.
Speaking on challenges, the OADC boss said these cuts across the globe, stressing that governments should be progressive in policy making.
According to him, Lagos is at the forefront of the growth in demand for capacity and data storage in Nigeria, which has the largest population in Africa, the largest economy and is the continent’s largest telecommunications market.
Coker said OADC has also deployed a new core DC to serve the cloud ecosystem in Isando, Johannesburg. Configured with an initial 1,600 square metres of IT white space and up to 7MW of site load, OADC JNB1 has significant expansion capacity, enabling growth in line with client demand to 3,000 square metres and 15MW.
He said two new OADC DCs in Cape Town are coming up, one is online in Rondebosch, the second at Brackenfell, adding that both facilities have been configured with an initial 1,000+ square metres of IT white space, can be scaled up to 800+ racks as demand grows and have site loads of up to 5MW and 3MW respectively.
“So, Open Access Data Centres (OADC) has been established to transform the provision of data centre services in Africa, based on proven, long-standing data centre expertise, strong existing relationships with clients in Africa and well-established delivery capabilities across the continent. Nigeria will be an even more important part of that. Our strategy is very comprehensive. We want to lead the Africa connectivity. OADC is one of the partners with the Google Equiano that was launched here last year,” he stated.
Coker explained that because OADC is part of the WIOCC Group and a sister company of carriers’ carrier, WIOCC, the resulting converged open digital infrastructure enables OADC clients to establish interconnectivity across Nigeria and to other key locations in Africa by taking advantage of WIOCC’s Pan-African open hyperscale network infrastructure.
As such, the Chief Marketing Officer, WIOCC Group, Mike Last, expressed delight with the significant progress OADC has recorded on the continent.
“In Nigeria, for instance, we started about two years ago and have made tremendous progress since then. We’ve got a flagship facility in Lekki. The Open Access Data Centres’ Lagos facility (OADC Lagos LOS1) is designed to be the most client-centric data centre in West Africa.
“We are happy to announce that OADC Lagos is a purpose-built, high specification data centre, situated on a prime four-hectare site in Lekki, making it the largest data centre campus in West Africa.
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