As technology and AI capabilities scale worldwide, the larger data centre markets – including North America, Europe and the Nordics – have continued to grow. However, rapid innovation has also paved the way for newer destinations for hyperscale investment, including the Middle East, Italy and Africa.
Africa has been regarded as one of the most promising long-term opportunities in the industry for some time. South Africa in particular has emerged as one of the continent’s most established digital infrastructure hubs, according to BCS Consultancy’s regional director, Oskar Lampe, explained to Capacity.
“The scale of the opportunity is now growing,” Lampe said. “As investment accelerates and the market matures, developers, operators and technology companies are increasingly looking at Africa as a region for growth today, not sometime in the future.”
Committed to strong growth
Lampe explained how South Africa’s strong position has not happened by chance, but because the country has been working to attract the largest concentration of hyperscale and colocation investment over the last decade.
“[It is] a natural starting point for organisations looking to build a long-term presence in Africa,” he explained. “[The country] is supported by established cloud regions, a mature professional services sector and a supply chain that is becoming increasingly experienced in delivering mission-critical infrastructure.
“This combination provides a level of market maturity that is difficult to find elsewhere in Africa, while still offering significant room for growth.”
As a result, the market in South Africa is expected to more than double in value over the next six years from US$2.55 billion in 2025 to $5.28 billion by 2031. Lampe explained this can be attributed to the fact that cloud adoption is accelerating alongside digital transformation across public and private sectors, in addition to rising mobile data consumption, continued growth of fintech and surging demand for data sovereignty.
He said all of these things are “creating sustained demand for secure, low-latency digital infrastructure,” adding that “as digital infrastructure investment gathers pace in countries such as Kenya, Nigeria and Morocco, many international developers, operators and technology companies are looking for a regional base that combines established capability with access to emerging markets.”
He explained: “South Africa is well placed to fulfil that role, providing both a strong domestic market and a platform from which organisations can support growth across the wider continent.”
Scaling connectivity
Improving connectivity across the region is also sparking further investments, with new subsea cable systems and the expansion of terrestrial fibre networks strengthening connections within and between Africa and the rest of the world.
As latency reduces and resilience improves, Lampe said Africa is becoming more popular for cloud providers, enterprise applications and digital businesses. He argued that Africa is being viewed increasingly for the opportunities already emerging in the region, rather than just future potential.
“Those investments are reinforcing one another. Better connectivity enables greatercloud adoption, which increases demand for local data centre capacity,” he added. “As more organisations move critical workloads into the cloud, the need for resilient infrastructure located closer to end users continues to grow. That additional capacity creates the foundation for further digital transformation across the continent.”
Within more established data centre markets, AI is starting to influence the type of infrastructure being built, with higher rack densities, increased power requirements and more advanced cooling strategies becoming part of mainstream data centre design.
With this in mind, Lampe suggested that Africa has an opportunity to incorporate these considerations from the outset.
“Much of the infrastructure needed to support future AI adoption is still in the planning or development phase, allowing developers to design for future workloads rather than retrofit existing facilities,” he explained. “That creates the potential to build infrastructure that is not only capable of supporting today’s demand but is also prepared for the rapid evolution of AI over the coming years.”
Overcoming challenges for digital growth
However, such rapid growth brings power-related challenges anywhere data centres are operating. Power remains a significant consideration within South Africa as demand rises.
“Although South Africa’s electricity situation has improved considerably in recent years, demand for digital infrastructure is increasing rapidly and connection strategies will continue to influence site selection and commercialcoming a strategic part of project planning rather than simply a utility requirement.”
Lampe added that South Africa can learn from global experience in more established data centre markets, including investing in local capability with its “strong community of engineering, commercial and project management professionals,” arguing that the sector itself “remains relatively young”.
He added: “Supply chains present another consideration. Many critical components, including transformers, switchgear, generators and cooling systems, remain dependent on global manufacturing and logistics.”
What’s clear is that Africa has the opportunity to benefit from lessons learned from other regions around the world. As international investment accelerates, Lampe said success across the continent will depend on more than replicating delivery models developed in other places.
“Understanding local procurement practices, regulatory environments, supply chains and delivery capability will become increasingly important as projects grow in scale and complexity,” he suggested. “South Africa provides the strongest platform from which to build that understanding.”
He added: “As the market matures, competitive advantage will come not simply from global experience, but from combining it with genuine local knowledge, trusted partnerships and a long-term commitment to the region. Organisations that invest early in building those capabilities will be best placed to support Africa’s next phase of digital infrastructure growth.”
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