Safaricom Telecommunications Ethiopia, previously known as the Global Partnership for Ethiopia who received the sole license to operate telecom services in Ethiopia, has invested $100 million in their first data center in the country’s capital.
Offering insights about the company’s first data center, Pedro Rabacal, chief technology officer at Safaricom Ethiopia said that the facility is a pioneer to other data centers that would be established in the country. Having a long journey, the infrastructure is said to be built from Hong Kong, China and shipped to Djibouti before being cleared and transported to Addis Ababa where it would be operated.
About $300 million worth of investment will be allotted into the country in 2022, with more data centers to be rolled out as the company’s network grows. Rabacal explained, “As we get more customers, we need more data centers to be able to carry all of the voice, all of the internet. All have to come through a data center such as this one.”
The deployment comes as Safaricom looks to launch commercial services in Ethiopia and become the country’s second telecoms operator. After successfully completing the data center in Addis Ababa, Safaricom will expand to Adama and Dire Dawa.