•Nigeria, South Africa, DRC to benefit from deal
To deepen and expand digital infrastructure in three African countries, a financing package has been concluded by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Proparco.
This finance, which is about $41 million, will see IFC and Proparco provide WIOCC Group funding to enhance the continent’s digital infrastructure, connectivity and support economic growth.
Specifically, in the document made available to journalists yesterday, the financing includes loans of $10 million and ZAR 200 million from IFC, a member of the World Bank Group and $20 million from Proparco, a development finance institution and a subsidiary of the Agence Française de Développement Group.
Checks by The Guardian showed that the $10 million, ZAR 200 million ($11 million) and $20 million amounted to about $41 million.
WIOCC expects to sign an additional $10 million loan for its expansion in Nigeria with RMB in the next few weeks.
With the funding, WIOCC Group will expand its core and edge data centres in the DRC, Nigeria, and South Africa to meet the growing demand for colocation and other data centre services. It will also grow its fibre networks, helping bridge the digital divide, and fostering economic growth across Africa.
The financing is structured as a sustainability-linked debt, with pricing linked to WIOCC’s commitment to improve the energy efficiency of its data centres and obtain EDGE green building certification for them. EDGE, an innovation of IFC, makes it easy to design and certify resource-efficient and zero-carbon buildings.
Chief Executive Officer of WIOCC Group, Chris Wood, said: “We are excited to conclude this next stage of our capital raise, which will enable significant expansion, adding further capacity to our open-access data centre operation and extending open-access hyperscale national, international, and metro connectivity across our key markets in Nigeria, southern Africa, the DRC and Greater East and Central Africa.
“Our policy of continual investment in infrastructure to create Africa’s first, truly open-access interconnected digital ecosystem means ongoing investment for growth, ensuring readiness to meet the future demands of our clients’ customers throughout Africa.”
Head of Energy, Digital and Infrastructure at Proparco, Ariane Ducreux, said: “The Agence Française de Développement Group has been supporting WIOCC since its inception back in 2007. We are very proud to pursue this long-term partnership by supporting the expansion of the Open Access Data Centres’ activities in Nigeria, South Africa, DRC and beyond. Truly neutral and open-access data centres are the cornerstone of a diversified digital ecosystem. Local data storage and processing capacity are also vital for the resilience of Africa’s digital network, as recent outages have demonstrated.
“The sustainability-linked structure of this new financing, along with technical assistance support, also aims to incentivize the rollout of energy and water efficient datacentres, while adapting implementations to the specs of each site environment.”
On his part, IFC Global Industry Director of Infrastructure, Bertrand de la Borde said the firm’s long-standing partnership with WIOCC of more than 15 years demonstrates its commitment to increasing affordable and reliable digital connectivity in Africa through shared infrastructure.
He said this new debt facility will help WIOCC fulfill its ambition to establish an integrated, open-access, core-to-edge cloud ecosystem throughout the African continent, which is critical to bridging the digital divide.
Head of Investment Banking, Broader Africa, RMB, Chidi Iwuchukwu, said: “RMB is thrilled to be a Strategic Banking Partner to WIOCC. Digital Infrastructure is one of our core sectors of expertise as a Bank. As such, we are excited at the opportunity to support this deal and remain committed to partnering with WIOCC on its growth journey across the continent.”
Since its inception in 2007, WIOCC has been investing in Africa’s digital backbone, delivering open-access infrastructure to meet the growing demand for reliable connectivity solutions throughout the continent.
The firms explained that as WIOCC Group continues to transform Africa, this latest capital raise signifies a major milestone in its journey towards building a more connected Africa, fostering long-term partnerships and sustainability.
