Raxio plots African growth with data center in Uganda

Data center developer Raxio has launched Uganda's first Tier III carrier-neutral data center and has a strong pipeline for a dozen more across Africa over the next three years.

The data center officially opened in the Kampala Industrial and Business Park on Tuesday and has colocation space of up to 400 racks.

"The Raxio Group, supported by a strong institutional investor base, is on track to launch up to 12 carrier-neutral facilities across Africa within the next three years; we strongly believe that by providing the right technological infrastructure needed to transform businesses, our data centers will help drive economic growth, social development, and digital transformation throughout Africa," said Raxio Group CEO Robert Mullins.

The group first announced plans for a Ugandan data center in 2018. It has also started construction on a data center in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and also announced plans to launch at least three carrier-neutral data centers in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), starting from next year.

James Byaruhanga, general manager of Raxio Data Centre, called the construction of the flagship facility "a long but rewarding journey."

"Raxio Data Centre is a dream come true, with our Tier III certification from the Uptime Institute we believe that this facility will be a bedrock for increased economic development in Uganda as it will attract several opportunities for colocation not only regionally but also internationally. We look forward to the positive impact of our facility across the enterprise and SME markets, and on key industries such as financial services, content and media," Byaruhanga added.

Raxio aims to support the emerging digital economy in the country and support the core priorities of the Ministry of ICT in Uganda – including ICT infrastructure, job creation and information security.

The new facility has fiber connections through Africell Uganda, Airtel Uganda, Bandwidth and Cloud Services Group (BCS Group), Csquared, Liquid Telecom, MTN Uganda, National Information Technology Authority-Uganda (NITA-U), Roke Telkom, SEACOM and Uganda Telecom Limited (UTL).

*Top image is of the Raxio Group CEO Robert Mullins speaking at the launch event in Uganda (Source: Raxio).

— The Staff, Connecting Africa