Airtel Africa plans to build a data centre in Nairobi, in what will become its second such facility on the continent after Nigeria as it moves to diversify its revenue streams.
The telco says the Nairobi data centre, which will be usable in telecoms and other sectors, will have a capacity of seven megawatts to trail the 36-megawatt centre that it plans to build in Lagos, Nigeria.
Airtel Africa chief executive Segun Ogunsanya said in a February 1 conference call with analysts the telco plans to start building the data in Nigeria and follow up with Kenya and complete by mid-2026.
“We are going to break ground in Nigeria in the next couple of weeks and the one in Kenya will follow soon. Construction takes about two years, so we’re looking at them coming into operation probably sometime in mid-year 2026.
Mr Ogunsanya labelled the two planned data centres as the “key stars in our portfolio” and said they are going to be commercially operated.