After Nigeria, Airtel Africa launches construction of a data center in Kenya
September 10th 2025
Accelerated digital transformation is driving strong demand for data center capacity across Africa. While supply remains limited, telecom operators are positioning themselves to meet this demand as they evolve into technology companies.
Telecommunications group Airtel Africa announced on Tuesday, September 9, the start of construction work on its data center in Kenya, via its dedicated subsidiary Nxtra. Billed as the largest infrastructure of its kind in East Africa, the future facility will be located in Tatu City, near Nairobi. With a capacity of 44 MW, it is expected to be commissioned in the first quarter of 2027.
“Once completed, the data center will be a partner of choice for hosting cloud workloads and artificial intelligence, to boost businesses, support governments and open new opportunities for communities in the region,” Airtel Kenya said in an official statement.
This launch comes about a month after the groundbreaking of a 38 MW facility in Eko Atlantic City, Lagos, Nigeria. In March 2024, a similar ceremony was held on Victoria Island, four months after the official announcement of the launch of Nxtra by Airtel. With this subsidiary, Airtel Africa aims to build a vast network of data centers across the continent, with high-capacity infrastructure located in the major cities within its footprint. The operator is currently active in 14 African countries.
Through this network, Airtel Africa aims to meet the growing demand for integrated and secure solutions, both for multinationals and large African companies, startups, SMEs, and governments. This strategy is part of a context of accelerated digital transformation on the continent. Like other telecom operators, the group is focusing on diversifying its activities to capture new market opportunities. MTN Group, also committed to this dynamic, launched a new data center in Nigeria on July 1.
In Africa, the market potential is considerable, given the backlog in data center development. As of mid-2023, the continent still accounted for less than 2% of the global supply of colocation data centers, more than half of which is concentrated in South Africa, according to the “Data Centers in Africa Focus Report” published by Oxford Business Group in April 2024. The same source estimates that Africa needs approximately 1,000 MW of capacity and 700 additional facilities to meet demand. The Global Mobile Phone Association (GSMA) identifies a $622 billion opportunity in the cloud services and data center segment of the global B2B market by 2030.
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