One of the biggest telecommunications companies in Africa, Airtel Africa has on Tuesday launched Airtel Nxtra which is a new data centre business with a commitment to meet the continent’s growing needs for trusted, and sustainable data centre capacity and to serve the fast-growing African digital economy.
Nxtra aims to build one of the largest network of data centres in Africa with high-capacity data centres in major cities located strategically across Airtel Africa’s footprint, complementing its existing edge sites.
Airtel Africa’s Group Chief Executive Officer Segun Ogunsanya said this is in response to the need to serve the growing need of African enterprises and its data centre infrastructure.
“A rapid increase in data centre capacity is needed to support the growth potential of Africa’s digital economy. We’re proud to drive the future of Africa’s digital infrastructure, unlocking opportunities for businesses to grow and fuelling economic prosperity. Airtel Africa’s team has consistently shown our ability to deliver on infrastructure projects across Africa, and we are confident that our next generation data centres will support our ambition to become the partner of choice for global customers and Africa’s newest tech unicorns alike.” he said.
To deliver on Nxtra’s vision, Airtel Africa has appointed Yashnath Issur, the former head of Global Data Centre Portfolio Management at Amazon Web Services, as CEO of Nxtra by Airtel.
Yashnath has 16 years of experience in the industry and has, over the past year, built a team of experts to execute on the strategy.
The first major Nxtra facility is in Lagos, Nigeria.
