Retail Banking Institute | Investors eye up coastal data centres

Investors eye up coastal data centres

There are reports that Absa will open a Dubai office as investors look to put money into infrastructure across Africa. Many of those investments will be into digital infrastructure, such as data centres on Victoria Island. "Ten of Nigeria's 16 data centres are already concentrated in Victoria Island, Lekki, and Eko Atlantic City, and operators are racing to add more capacity," writes TechCabal. Many factors including data localisation and data privacy are driving local data centre construction. "By bringing data processing closer to users, these facilities will reduce delays, enhancing the performance of cloud services, streaming, and online gaming," says the site. "The closer a data center is to a submarine cable landing station (CLS), the faster data can travel, reducing delays. Coastal data centers are built near these landing stations to improve speed and efficiency. They also serve as backup hubs, keeping networks running even if inland connections go down, said Ayotunde Coker, CEO of Open Access Data Centre (OADC)."