Datacentre operators always have to look at new routes, to redistribute workloads and implement expansion strategies. That’s a fact of life as they respond to stresses from price erosion, regulatory interventions in traditional markets and wider geopolitics. These are among the key challenges faced by Digital Realty, which has opened its first datacentre in Ghana in the wake of increased infrastructure investments in emerging locations across sub-Saharan Africa.
In November 2025, Digital Realty cut the ribbon on its first datacentre near Ghana’s capital, Accra – the 1.7MW, 1,100m2 ACR2 new-build. ACR1 was its initial cable landing station facility. The same month, Equinix announced a $22m (£16.3m) facility in Lagos, its third in Nigeria.
Opportunities have been broadening since Meta’s 2Africa subsea cable made landfall near Accra in 2025, the sixth fibre cable to connect the country and operated by South Africa-headquartered MTN Group subsidiary Bayobab.
Paula Cogan, EMEA managing director for Digital Realty, says the operator now has six datacentres in South Africa, four in Kenya, four in Nigeria, and one in Mozambique. The idea is to create a “consistent platform of datacentre and colocation facilities worldwide” that follows major demand drivers.
“We expect significant growth in the Africa region,” she says.
Africa’s 58 countries are home to around 19% of the global population. Often, they’re mobile-first, due to a historic lack of infrastructure, and payment platforms are a particular strength. African mobile data use has been growing at around 40% annually – far higher than in other major economies.
Cogan says ACR2 will become a “marquee” connectivity hub for Ghana. The London Internet Exchange (Linx) signed up in October 2025.
Supporting national and international requirements
Beyond supporting international interconnect, business and enterprises “will no longer have to choose between compliance and performance”, says Joseph Koranteng, Digital Realty’s managing director in Ghana. “ACR2 delivers both here in Accra – the reliability, compliance and connectivity that banks, fintechs, telcos and cloud providers need.”
That’s partly about data sovereignty as well. And across the board, pan-Africa connectivity is improving, with 77 subsea cables landing on the continent as of 2025. Digital Realty had anticipated these improvements.
ACR2 delivers both compliance and performance here in Accra – the reliability, compliance and connectivity that banks, fintechs, telcos and cloud providers need Joseph Koranteng, Digital Realty
“It’s driving down latency, it’s driving up reliability and, as a consequence, driving up investor confidence,” Cogan explains. “Analysts tell us Africa has less than 2% of the world’s datacentre capacity. And in Ghana, capacity through 2030 is projected to grow to 1.5-2.2GW from less than 0.5GW today.”
Digital Realty arrived in Africa in 2019, acquiring Kenya’s iColo, then adding Mozambique and Nigeria. In 2022, it moved into the largest African market, South Africa, with the acquisition of Teraco.
Cogan says partnering locally with small, established providers has been key to navigating local laws and regulations, including permitting requirements for globally consistent and compatible design, engineering and construction, including around safety and sustainability.
“Africa is a tapestry of highly diverse countries, cultures, economies and regulatory environments,” she says.
The company felt the Ghana political and regulatory environment was more navigable than that of Nigeria, for example. So ACR2 is a wholly-owned development, whereas in Lagos, Digital Realty entered the market with the acquisition of local datacentre operator Medallion. Digital Realty has used this model of partnerships and joint ventures in many markets, according to Cogan.
“We also have a local team and then a very regular cohort of individuals that go in to support those teams on the ground,” she adds.
For example, Digital Realty’s head of health and safety recently inspected all the company’s facilities to ensure operation according to its safety standards. The company does that regularly, says Cogan.
Local partnering also helps deliver a “platform of skills” on which the company can build. Cloud, internet and hyperscale will all grow, with more verticals and sectors to follow, although it is often “a long-term bet”, she suggests.
Marcel Louw, Digital Realty managing director in Africa, further emphasises the importance of inclusivity, and favouring strong local partnerships and solutions.
“In Ghana, success really comes from working closely with the government and local communities. You need buy-in from both,” he says.
“We are fortunate to have strong local partners, including our joint venture partner, Pembani Remgro infrastructure managers, an African infrastructure-focused private equity fund, together with a Ghana-based management team led by our in-country managing director. Joseph Koranteng understands the local landscape far better than expatriates would.”
The government is also supportive, including via the Ghana Investment Promotion Center, with new policies around datacentre operations and digital infrastructure in development. Input has been sought from all stakeholders to boost digitisation.
“Compared to some markets, the environment is relatively pragmatic and pro-investment,” says Louw. “We already host a mix of ISPs [internet service providers] and enterprise customers, and over time this will expand to include more local companies as well as large multinationals.”
Developing local digital ecosystems
The larger picture is about continuing to build and develop a digital ecosystem around the datacentre that includes content providers, cloud platforms, networks and enterprise customers.
ACR2 anchors to the Ghana IX internet exchange as well as Linx, and over time, the operator wants to connect more international exchanges into Accra, whether from Europe, Africa or elsewhere. Meta has suggested that 2Africa on its own could boost African GDP by up to $36.9bn in three years.
The 45,000km 2Africa cable alone spans 50 jurisdictions, offering 180Tbps (terabits per second) of trunk capacity for high-bandwidth, low-latency access. It is the first cable project to provide continuous capacity around the African continent while connecting countries in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Europe, says Louw.
The vision is for ACR2 to become key to Digital Realty’s global platform of about 25 countries and 50 metro areas. That will come via 2Africa and satellite connectivity, serving customers with its ServiceFabric software platform to connect, manage and control customer datacentre infrastructure and network services, says Louw.
Ghanaian mobile network providers, including MTN and Vodafone/Telecel, have laid terrestrial fibre networks across all the country’s regions and 38 towns, with further expansion required. Government projects include some 780km of 100Gbps (gigabits per second) fibre optic networking across Ghana’s rural Eastern corridor, completed from Ho to Bawku in 2015, then extended to Accra in 2018. Linking to the capital’s National Data Centre at one end, it strengthens communications to Burkina Faso at the other.
Louw says access to sufficient, affordable, reliable power infrastructure is important, as it is everywhere. The past few years have seen “significant” local and international investment to stabilise and improve Ghana’s power sector, including the reduction of brownouts and other planned and unplanned outages. For datacentres, reliability is everything, so this has boosted confidence.
On the telecoms side, increased consolidation among network operators has also improved coverage and service quality. Meanwhile, new satellite providers such as Starlink have entered the market.
But Louw says access to renewables remains a challenge across West Africa, although there is strong potential for solar and wind. Signing direct power purchase agreements with power generators is also more challenging than in Europe or the US. Few projects are large enough, and supporting legislation is often absent.
“It is not all negative, however, as the Kenyan grid is now estimated at more than 90% renewable,” says Louw. “That was not the case 10 years ago. That’s driven by long-term investment in clean energy and sustained support for climate change initiatives. Of course, ACR2 is a greenfield development, so we’re still early in our journey.”
Overall, Ghana is a far more credible and attractive location for digital infrastructure today than it was even five or 10 years ago, but the biggest challenge is awareness, Louw explains.
He says the market in West Africa has yet to realise how colocation can benefit its economies. Many organisations remain unfamiliar with colocation and its related cost efficiencies, resilience, security and scalability. This means there’s still an “education component” to deploy, with demand to follow connectivity expansion.
Bringing high-tech in if needed
Artificial intelligence (AI) adoption across Africa is only small-scale so far. When the market is ready, international experience, standards and technologies – including direct liquid cooling – can be brought in. Right now, for Ghana, it’s still about building out connectivity, reliable facilities and cloud on-ramps. Furthermore, Digital Realty’s innovation lab in Virginia can be a hands-on AI sandbox where colocation partners, enterprises and customers can test and validate solutions.
As long as it is clear that we are here to build something lasting, not simply to make a quick return, sentiment remains constructive. Our strong preference is always to hire and train locally Marcel Louw, Digital Realty
“If and when serious AI demand emerges, we have the technical capability to adapt existing facilities or build new ones to support it,” says Louw. “The advantage we have is our wider African footprint. We’ve seen how this plays out in east and southern Africa: customers start small, get comfortable, see the benefits, and then expand.”
In particular, Digital Realty is tailoring its local strategy to help banks, payment platforms and other financial institutions transition from on-premise server rooms to professionally managed colocation environments, demonstrating the resilience, security and scalability benefits this provides, he adds.
Feedback from local communities has been encouraging. Across Africa, support tends to grow when people see local staff hired, skills transferred, and investments being long-term rather than speculative.
“As long as it is clear that we are here to build something lasting, not simply to make a quick return, sentiment remains constructive,” says Louw. “Our strong preference is always to hire and train locally. We also send local staff abroad for training – although outbound visas are complex, particularly for the UK, the US and parts of Europe.”
Alan Howard, a principal analyst at Omdia, says traditionally “difficult” markets that include sub-Saharan Africa and South America are opening up. Multiple factors, such as geopolitics, saturation and cost, have pushed operators to broaden their view. Sub-Saharan Africa is home to a billion people – Nigeria alone has 240 million, with Ghana nearly 36 million and Côte d’Ivoire about 33 million.
“In Africa, Equinix acquired MainOne and Digital Realty Teraco, Medallion and iColo, all in 2020 to 2022, setting the stage for an evolution,” Howard confirms. “Advances in power and network infrastructure connect more of the population, with subsea cables interconnecting global markets.”
