Africa’s digital landscape is undergoing a remarkable transformation, driven by rapid growth in data centre capacity, evolving cloud infrastructure, and expanding connectivity. This blog post, which summarises the 2026 Africa Interconnection Report by Balancing Act, explores the current state and future trajectory of Africa’s data centres and cloud ecosystem, focusing on growth, regional connectivity, and the digital transformation underway.
Data centre growth and consolidation
Sub-Saharan Africa has seen growth and consolidation in its data centre sector. While the number of carrier-neutral data centres has declined slightly from 75 to 72, overall capacity has increased, especially in larger markets like South Africa, Nigeria, and Kenya.
The number of countries with access to a carrier-neutral data centre has plateaued at 21, with six countries having only one operator. Expansion into new countries has slowed, reflecting the challenges of finding clients in smaller markets and delays due to regulatory or logistical issues.
Key investment highlights
Major investments in 2024 and 2025 include $1 billion by Microsoft, $800 million by Axian/Stellarix, and $250 million by Colo West/Rack Centre. Notable projects include iXAfrica’s large-scale build in Kenya and Wingu’s $60 million expansion in Djibouti, Ethiopia, and Tanzania.
The sector is seeing consolidation, with some smaller operators merging or exiting, while larger players are expanding their footprint through acquisitions.
Operators are split between building large facilities in anticipation of future demand and expanding incrementally. The former approach can capture hyperscaler and AI-driven demand, while the latter risks capacity shortages when demand spikes. South Africa remains the dominant market, with up to 60% of its data centre capacity deployed by hyperscalers.
AI demand wild card
Artificial intelligence (AI) is emerging as a significant driver of data centre and cloud demand. There are two main types of AI demand, namely training and inference.
Training requires massive datasets and high compute power, typically for large organisations, governments, and academia. Inference refers to operational use of trained models, which are increasingly relevant for consumer applications and local businesses.
Africa is seeing growing consumer adoption of generative AI tools such as ChatGPT and Google Gemini, as well as local language models developed by Google and Microsoft, including Swahili, Hausa, and Arabic.
The continent is also seeing major investments in GPU-as-a-Service and further expansion across Egypt, Nigeria, Kenya, and Morocco. Early-stage AI projects in sectors like education, healthcare, and government are supported by donor funding and public-private partnerships.
Regional connectivity and IXPs
Carrier-neutral data centres and IXPs are central to Africa’s digital backbone, enabling local traffic exchange and reducing reliance on international routes. The largest regional hubs are South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, and Ghana, each with multiple IXPs and significant international cable landings.
The top IXPs by traffic and peers include the following:
- South Africa: NAPAfrica (6 TB traffic, 680 peers)
- Nigeria: IXPN (2 TB traffic, 104 peers)
- Kenya: KIXP (600 GB traffic, 154 peers)
- Ghana: GIXA (740 GB traffic)
Countries with more international and regional colocation partners tend to have more cable landing stations, further strengthening their hub status. Landlocked countries face disadvantages due to limited direct access to international cables.
Challenges and opportunities
Countries with open wholesale markets such as Kenya outperform those with monopolies such as Cameroon and Tanzania.
The shift in peering policies by hyperscalers (Google’s Verified Peering Policy) may impact the openness and growth of IXPs.
Video streaming and content delivery are driving massive increases in domestic traffic, with ISPs expanding fibre and fixed wireless access to underserved areas.
Cloud market evolution: hyperscalers, neo clouds, and local providers
Oracle has opened a public cloud in Kenya, with Microsoft and AWS planning further investments across the continent.
AWS is investing $1.7 billion in South Africa and expanding edge services (Wavelength Zone in Senegal).
Microsoft is expanding cloud and AI infrastructure, with a new cloud region in South Africa and plans for Nigeria.
Google Cloud and Alibaba are also increasing their presence, with partnerships and edge node deployments.
Neo cloud providers like VPSie and Zadara are filling gaps in markets not yet served by hyperscalers, offering local currency billing, zero data egress fees, and flexible OpEx models.
Local providers are adapting to data sovereignty requirements, offering ‘sovereign cloud’ solutions and targeting SMEs and regulated sectors.
Challenges include after-sales support, the need for consultancy services, and the impact of licensing changes as evidenced by Broadcom’s acquisition of VMWare.
Cloud adoption trends
Enterprises are moving from on-premises to cloud-based solutions, driven by end-of-support for legacy products and the need for scalability. Bandwidth costs and regulatory barriers (data sovereignty laws) remain obstacles in some countries.
New cables and Red Sea resilience
Africa’s total international inbound bandwidth grew by 38% between 2021 and 2025 – the fastest globally. This growth is supported by projects like Daraja (Meta/Safaricom), Umoja (Google), Waterworth (Meta), and Seacom 2 are designed to increase capacity and provide alternative routes that bypass the vulnerable Red Sea corridor. Ambitious projects like Nigeria’s Project Bridge aim to build 90 000km of new national fibre routes.
Recent cable cuts in the Red Sea highlight Africa’s vulnerability to single points of failure. As a result, new cable projects are prioritising route diversity and resilience, with hyperscalers increasingly building and owning their own cables.
Africa’s data centre and cloud infrastructure landscape is at a pivotal moment. Key trends include:
- Continued capacity growth in major markets, with consolidation among smaller operators.
- AI and hyperscaler demand driving new investments and shaping facility design.
- Regional hubs and IXPs strengthening local and cross-border connectivity.
- Cloud adoption accelerating, with neo cloud and local providers addressing regulatory and cost challenges.
- Connectivity resilience improving through new cable projects and route diversity.
Africa’s digital transformation is being built on a foundation of robust data centres, innovative cloud solutions, and ever-expanding connectivity. As these trends continue, the continent is poised to unlock new opportunities for economic growth, innovation, and inclusion across all sectors.
