Verdant Capital played a pivotal role as the strategic and financial advisor for the joint venture transaction between Africa’s leading data centre operator, Open Access Data Centres (OADC), a WIOCC Group company, and TEXAF, one of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s oldest business groups. The landmark joint venture agreement, signed in July, signifies the parties’ commitment to revolutionizing the DRC’s digital landscape by establishing the country’s first open access, carrier-neutral data centre. Operating under the co-owned subsidiary, Open Access Data Centres-TEXAF Digital (DRC), the joint venture combines OADC’s pan-African data centre expertise with the WIOCC Group’s continent-wide hyperscale connectivity infrastructure and TEXAF’s extensive knowledge and experience in investing and operating businesses in the DRC for nearly a century.
The new data centre, OADC Kinshasa, is highly advanced and is set to commence operations in Q4 2023. With a capacity of 2MW and the potential to accommodate over 550 racks across 1,000 square meters of white space, OADC Kinshasa is certified as a Tier III facility by the Uptime Institute. It has garnered significant interest from major local and multinational corporations, including banks and telecommunications operators, as well as international digital content providers aiming to expand their services in the rapidly growing DRC market.
OADC’s entry into the DRC will have a profound and enduring impact on the country’s economy. OADC Kinshasa represents a paradigm of converged open digital infrastructure (CODI), merging carrier-neutral and open access data centre facilities with hyperscale data networks, which form the core of WIOCC Group’s business. This convergence is expected to boost the DRC’s economy and accelerate digital transformation across the nation.
One of the immediate effects of OADC Kinshasa’s establishment is the creation of a comprehensive interconnection and peering ecosystem involving multiple telecommunications carriers, ISPs, content providers, and internet exchanges. This transformative initiative is anticipated to enhance the country’s internet penetration rate, which stood at only 17.4% at the beginning of 2022, compared to 43.0% for Africa as a whole and 68.6% for the rest of the world, according to Internet World Stats. Additionally, the introduction of cloud and internet services is likely to increase consumer use of online applications, bridging the digital divide in the DRC.
Verdant Capital played a crucial role as the strategic and financial advisor for the joint venture transaction between WIOCC Group, OADC, and TEXAF, contributing to this significant milestone in the DRC’s digital transformation journey. Edmund Higenbottam -is currently the Managing Director of Verdant Capital Based in South Africa. .
