Safaricom has announced the completion of the first phase of construction for a Tier 3 data centre in Redhill, Limuru. This is one of three planned Tier 3+ data centres the telco intends to develop in the long term.
Data centre tiers are a standardized ranking system issued by the global Uptime Institute, indicating a facility’s reliability and performance. The lowest tier is 1, and the highest is 4. With a Tier 3+ rating, Safaricom’s new data centre boasts 99.982% uptime and high-capacity cooling systems, making it suitable for hyperscalers such as Microsoft, AWS, and Oracle.
“When we call it world-class, we’ve already been tested against best practices and industry standards. That means we play in the same league as Google and Microsoft,” said Esther Karuga, Senior Manager and overall lead at the Limuru Data Centre.
She further emphasized the centre’s role in data security and regulatory compliance, stating, “Having a data centre of our own and housing key systems that handle customer data within our facility helps us comply with the Data Protection Act.”
The facility will host Safaricom’s internal IT infrastructure, M-PESA operations, and an innovation lab to test new technologies before launch.
The second construction phase is already underway and expected to be completed by January 2026. Once finished, the data centre will have a total capacity of 2.8 MW.
Maxwell Ndei, the Program Manager for the project, acknowledged the teamwork behind the achievement, “I’m proud of the team. This is not just about equipment—it’s about people. From the masons and electricians to the Mama Mboga who brought food to the construction workers, it was a collective effort. We had long nights and tough meetings, but we emerged stronger and wiser.”
Joshua Ogoti, Principal Engineer overseeing the project, highlighted how the new data centre will benefit customers, “This data centre enhances stability and resilience for services like M-PESA, allowing for more transactions per second. With automated systems, customers can make queries and receive solutions at the touch of a button.”
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