WIOCC, IFC, others pull over $50m to boost Africa ICT infrastructure

By Chinenye Anuforo

WIOCC, a frontrunner in African digital infrastructure, secured a substantial funding package totaling over $50 million from a consortium of international institutions to bridge the digital divide on the continent. This financial boost will fuel WIOCC’s ambitious expansion plans across three key countries: Nigeria, South Africa, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The financing includes loans of $10 million and ZAR 200 million (approximately $11.1m) from IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, and $20 million from Proparco, a development finance institution and subsidiary of the Agence Française de Développement Group. WIOCC expects to sign an additional $10 million loan for its expansion in Nigeria with RMB in the next few weeks.

These funds will be strategically deployed to bolster WIOCC’s existing data centers and fiber optic networks in the target regions. This expansion directly addresses the ever-growing demand for reliable data storage and internet connectivity across Africa. By building a robust “core-to-edge” infrastructure, WIOCC aims to bridge the digital divide – the gap between those who have access to information and communication technologies and those who don’t.

The financing is structured as a sustainability-linked debt, with pricing linked to WIOCC’s commitment to improve the energy efficiency of its data centres and obtain EDGE green building certification for them. EDGE, an innovation of IFC, makes it easy to design and certify resource-efficient and zero carbon buildings.

“We are excited to conclude this next stage of our capital raise, which will enable significant expansion, adding further capacity to our open-access data centre operation and extending open-access hyperscale national, international, and metro connectivity across our key markets in Nigeria, southern Africa, the DRC and Greater East and Central Africa,” said Chris Wood, CEO of WIOCC Group. “Our policy of continual investment in infrastructure to create Africa’s first, truly open-access interconnected digital ecosystem means ongoing investment for growth, ensuring readiness to meet the future demands of our clients’ customers throughout Africa.”

“The Agence Française de Développement Group have been supporting WIOCC since its inception back in 2007,” said Ariane Ducreux, Head of Energy, Digital and Infrastructure at PROPARCO. “We are very proud to pursue this long-term partnership by supporting the expansion of the Open Access Data Centres’ activities in Nigeria, South Africa, DRC and beyond. Truly neutral and open-access data centres are the cornerstone of a diversified digital ecosystem. Local data storage and processing capacity are also vital for the resilience of Africa’s digital network, as recent outages have demonstrated. The sustainability-linked structure of this new financing, along with technical assistance support, also aims to incentivize the rollout of energy and water efficient data centres, while adapting implementations to the specs of each site environment.”

“Our long-standing partnership with WIOCC of more than 15 years demonstrates IFC’s commitment to increasing affordable and reliable digital connectivity in Africa through shared infrastructure. This new debt facility will help WIOCC fulfil its ambition to establish an integrated, open-access, core-to-edge cloud ecosystem throughout the African continent, which is critical to bridge the digital divide,” said Bertrand de la Borde, IFC Global Industry Director of infrastructure.

“RMB is thrilled to be a Strategic Banking Partner to WIOCC. Digital Infrastructure is one of our core sectors of expertise as a Bank. As such, we are excited at the opportunity to support this deal and remain committed to partnering with WIOCC on its growth journey across the continent,” said Chidi Iwuchukwu (Head of Investment Banking, Broader Africa – RMB).

Since its inception in 2007, WIOCC has been investing in Africa’s digital backbone, delivering open-access infrastructure to meet the growing demand for reliable connectivity solutions throughout the continent.

As WIOCC Group continues to transform digital Africa, this latest capital raise signifies a major milestone in its journey towards building a more connected Africa, fostering long-term partnerships and sustainability.