Natalie Bannerman
October 28, 2020
The Raxio Group (Raxio) has acquired land at the ICT Park, in the outskirts of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to build the country’s first private uptime certified Tier III colocation data centre.
The site, purchased through Raxio’s fully owned subsidiary in Ethiopia, Raxio Data Centre PLC (Raxio Ethiopia) is set to be commission in the third quarter of 2021.
Once completed, Raxio Ethiopia will offer its customers an optimised environment for their IT equipment in a state of the art, modular facility, fully equipped with leading technology, security, AC/DC power compatibility and redundancy.
“Following the holistic reform that our nation is undergoing, new mobile operators are expected to be licensed soon; as a result, our internet usage is projected to rapidly grow,” said Ato Sandokan Debebe, CEO of Industrial Parks Development Corporation.
“It is our belief that Raxio Ethiopia will play a paramount role in strengthening and developing the country’s digital infrastructure capabilities. We consider our corporation’s collaboration with Raxio in the development of the ICT Park, which is expected to contribute to the significant growth of the ICT sector, as a great achievement.”
In addition, customers will be able to cross connect with local and international carriers and other customers in specially designed meet-me rooms.
Additionally, Raxio Ethiopia will deploy its modules to accommodate an IT-capacity of 1.5MW over the next few years, with the possibility of doubling capacity to 3.0MW in line with demand.
“Raxio’s facilities enable companies such as mobile network operators, content delivery networks and financial service providers to run their critical IT systems in a built-for-purpose, always-on environment. With our module build, we will be able to support growth quickly and tailor our build to the needs of our customers,” added Robert Mullins, president of Raxio Group.
“Raxio Ethiopia will provide a critical and missing part of the nation’s digital infrastructure at an exciting and fast-evolving time in the broader telecoms sector in the country. We are pleased to be moving forward with developing Ethiopia’s first privately owned data centre and to have collaborated closely with the Ethiopian Investment Commission (EIC), the Industrial Parks Development Corporation (IPDC) and the ICT Park in reaching this important milestone.”
The news comes as Raxio confirms plans to open 10-12 new sites, with the next facilities likely in Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of Congo. All 12 planned data centres will meet the uptime, redundancy and maintainability requirements established under the Tier III standard.
