US-based firm to Build Ethiopia’s First Private Data Center
ADDIS ABEBA – A US based investment firm, Raxio Group, said it has secured a plot land inside the ICT Park in the outskirts of Addis Abeba where they will construct Ethiopia’s first private uptime certified Tier III colocation data center.
The group, through its fully-owned subsidiary in Ethiopia, will commission the data center under Raxio Data Centre PLC or Raxio Ethiopia in Q3 of 2021.
“We are pleased to be moving forward with developing Ethiopia’s first privately owned data centre”, said Robert Mullins, President of Raxio Group,
The company has collaborated closely with the Ethiopian Investment Commission (EIC), the Industrial Parks Development Corporation (IPDC) and the ICT Park in reaching the latest milestone.
“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,” said Robert.
Raxio Ethiopia will offer its customers an optimized environment for their IT equipment in a state of the art, modular facility, fully equipped with industry best in technology, security, AC/DC power compatibility and redundancy, according to the company.
Its customers will be able to cross connect with local and international carriers and other customers in specially-designed meet-me rooms – making Raxio Ethiopia an integral backbone to the country’s digital economy.
Internet usage in Ethiopia is expected to grow rapidly, with the help of government’s push to reform the telecom sector which involves the introduction of foreign mobile operators
“It is our belief that Raxio Ethiopia will play a paramount role in strengthening and developing the country’s digital infrastructure capabilities,” said Sandokan Debebe, CEO of IPDC.
“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,” he added.
Raxio said investment and project plans have already been completed in late 2019, and initial design is currently underway, following a Memorandum of Understanding agreement with the Ethiopian Investment Commission in December last year.
The MOU formalized Raxio’s investment plans and the EIC’s commitment to support Raxio in operationalizing its plans, including availing the required land within the ICT Park, according to Raxio.
Raxio Ethiopia will sequentially 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 as needs grow, according to the group.
—
[Photo File]
