WIOCC Group has secured $40m in financing from IFC and Proparco to expand its digital infrastructure in Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Africa.
The digital infrastructure firm, in a statement, said the investment aimed to boost data centres, fibre networks, and overall connectivity, fostering economic growth across Africa.
According to the firm, the financing package includes loans of $10m and ZAR 200m (South African Rand) from the International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank Group, and $20m from Proparco, a development finance institution and a subsidiary of the Agence Française de Développement Group.
WIOCC stated that it was planning to sign an additional $10m loan for its expansion in Nigeria with Rand Merchant Bank in the coming weeks.
With this funding, WIOCC Group would 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 added that it would also develop its fibre networks, bridging the digital divide and promoting economic growth across Africa.
The financing is structured as sustainability-linked debt, with pricing tied to WIOCC’s pledge to enhance the energy efficiency of its data centres and attain EDGE green building certification. EDGE, an innovation by IFC, supports the design and certification of resource-efficient and zero-carbon buildings.
The Chief Executive Officer of WIOCC Group, Chris Wood, stated, “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 hyper-scale 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 client’s customers throughout Africa.”
The 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, the DRC, and beyond. Truly neutral and open-access data centres are the cornerstone of a diversified digital ecosystem.”
According to Ducreux, local data storage and processing capacity are also vital for the resilience of Africa’s digital network, as recent outages have demonstrated.
He noted that the sustainability-linked structure of the new financing, along with technical assistance support, also aimed to incentivise the rollout of energy and water-efficient data centres, while adapting implementations to the specs of each site environment.
“RMB is thrilled to be a strategic banking partner for WIOCC. Digital infrastructure is one of our core areas 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,” said the Head of Investment Banking, Broader Africa at RMB, Chidi Iwuchukwu,