- The Raxio group is investing in the construction and operation of a 1.5MW colocation data center in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.
- With commissioning scheduled for 2023, Raxio Abidjan will be the first level III data center, independent from the country’s operators.
- The facility will support the strongest economic growth in francophone West Africa, promoting the region’s digital transformation and connecting international and local connectivity.
The Raxio Group (“Raxio”), one of the pan-African leaders in the development and operation of data centers, today announced the creation and financing of “Raxio Abidjan”, which will represent the very first level III data center. , at the cutting edge of technology, private and neutral vis-à-vis operators, in Côte d’Ivoire. Raxio Abidjan represents the most recent installation of interconnected data centers of Raxiom, a growing network on the African continent
Raxio Abidjan is located in the Village of Innovation and Technology of the Ivory Coast (www.vitib.ci), ideally located about 30 km from downtown Abidjan. The site benefits from a redundant power supply and excellent national and international connectivity. From this site, Raxio Abidjan will serve clients from Abidjan and the entire West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) area, from a wide range of sectors, at a time when the digital transformation, data and content consumption, and connectivity are increasing at an exceptional rate
Scheduled to be commissioned in 2023, Raxio Abidjan will be the fifth data center belonging to Raxio’s network in Africa, and the first in West Africa. The data center is being developed in partnership with Master Power Technologies and will offer significant colocation capacity, cross-connection services with local and international operators and a series of value-added services for the region. Côte d’Ivoire is the regional center of UEMOA, which includes Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo. With regulations allowing banks and other financial institutions to freely store and transfer data across the economic block, this location is ideal for businesses in the region who want to host their disaster recovery infrastructure in a reliable and professionally managed facility. in Abidjan.
Raxio Abidjan will offer its customers an optimized environment for their IT equipment in a state-of-the-art facility built in accordance with “metro-edge” principles applied to the entire Raxio catalog. It will be fully equipped with cutting-edge technological solutions which not only guarantee full redundancy and maximum uptime, but also optimize energy consumption and energy efficiency. The facility is designed to adapt to growing customer needs, with an initial capacity of approximately 400 racks and computing power of 1.5 MW.
Cote d’Ivoire has the 11th highest GDP on the African continent, and 17th highest GDP per capita, with an economy relying heavily on the service sector and a thriving middle class. The country’s digital transformation has steadily accelerated in recent years, with internet penetration currently reaching 46.8% and mobile penetration at 139.1%. Upcoming submarine cable landings and investments in terrestrial infrastructure will further reduce the cost of Internet and wireless broadband access, making it more accessible. All of these are expected to drive the trend towards data consumption and local content, for individuals and businesses.
Robert Mullins, CEO of Raxio Group, said: We are delighted to make Côte d’Ivoire our very first establishment in the West African market. The Ivory Coast is a real hub in the region and our decision to put in place the very first neutral, level III facility in the country fits perfectly with our strategy and supports our expansion efforts. With all the projects underway in the broader digital infrastructure sector, it is an exciting time to be a part of this continuing transformation. Our facility will be operated by a team of highly skilled Ivorians accredited with industry standard certifications and we expect Raxio Abidjan to be a strong driver of direct and indirect employment in the local tech sector. ”
Raxio Abidjan is part of the Raxio Group catalog, which includes Raxio Uganda (built in the suburb of Kampala), Raxio Kinshasa, Raxio Mozambique, recently announced, and Raxio Ethiopia, construction of which began earlier this year in Addis Ababa. The group is on track to make 10 to 12 investments in data centers across Africa to meet the growing demand for high quality local storage and data hosting in the region.
