Safaricom Ethiopia announced that it is building its first data center in Addis Ababa at a cost of $100 million. "In our first year, we have $300 million worth of investment that is going in, [out of] which the data center is just one of the many building blocks," Pedro Rabacal, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Safaricom Ethiopia, said.
Such data centers will be replicated across Ethiopia as the network grows and Safaricom Ethiopia gets more customers, the CTO remarked. The company plans to continue to build data centers, first at Adama and Dire Dawa, then across the rest of the country.
The data center's design has been made by the Safaricom Ethiopia team and the company's Chinese supplier, Mr. Rabacal said. It has been built in Hong Kong, then shipped to the Djibouti Port, and brought to Addis Ababa via track and rail, which Mr. Rabacal called "a long journey to bring this level of infrastructure" into Ethiopia.
"My team and I are very excited about being here, and about being able to build something that is really special for the Ethiopian people," he added.
"We intend to bring the best of the best services to Ethiopia over the next ten years."
Speaking on an investor call back in December 2021, Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa said the “opportunities [in Ethiopia] outweigh the risks and the uncertainties”, and remarked, “telecoms market liberalization has been unquestionably positive and of value for countries across the world”.
Safaricom Ethiopia announced plans to launch operations in March 2022.
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Source (Including Image): Safaricom Ethiopia
