Airtel Africa has announced the launch of Nxtra by Airtel, a pioneering data center business. With a commitment to addressing the continent’s increasing demand for secure and sustainable data center capacity, Nxtra is poised to play a pivotal role in supporting Africa’s burgeoning digital economy.
Nxtra by Airtel is a subsidiary of Bharti Airtel Limited offering a network of secure, scalable, and sustainable data centers to leading enterprises, hyperscalers, start-ups, SMEs and governments
Nxtra aims to establish one of the largest networks of data centers in Africa, strategically located in major cities across Airtel Africa’s footprint. These high-capacity facilities will complement existing edge sites, catering to the growing needs of African enterprises.
Nxtra’s infrastructure is designed to host the next generation of computing, offering multi-megawatt capacity in a phased manner. The facilities will adhere to stringent global security standards, ensuring ‘five nines’ availability.
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Why Airtel is launching Nxtra in Africa
The launch of Nxtra comes at a time when Africa’s digital economy is experiencing rapid growth. By providing secure and scalable integrated solutions, Nxtra aims to serve global hyper-scalers, large African enterprises, startups, SMEs, and governments.
Localized data center capacity will enhance the speed of access to digital services, reduce data management costs, and stimulate innovation. Nxtra also addresses data sovereignty requirements, facilitating the offering of more local cloud services in the countries where Airtel Africa operates.
What They Said
Airtel Africa’s Group CEO, Segun Ogunsanya, emphasized the critical need for increased data center capacity to support Africa’s digital economy. He stated, “We’re proud to drive the future of Africa’s digital infrastructure, unlocking opportunities for businesses to grow and fueling economic prosperity.”
Ogunsanya expressed confidence in Airtel Africa’s ability to deliver on infrastructure projects across the continent and highlighted the ambition for Nxtra to become the preferred partner for global customers and Africa’s emerging tech unicorns.
To execute Nxtra’s vision, Airtel Africa has appointed Yashnath Issur as the CEO. Issur, the former head of Global Data Centre Portfolio Management at Amazon Web Services, brings 16 years of industry experience. Over the past year, he has assembled a team of experts dedicated to realizing Nxtra’s strategic objectives.
When is Nxtra by Airtel launching in Africa?
The first major Nxtra facility, set to launch in mid-2025 in Lagos, Nigeria, will deliver 34 MW of total power. Engineered to host high-density racks, the facility incorporates the latest best practices in construction to achieve an impressive power usage effectiveness (PUE) of 1.3.
