Airtel Africa, through its data centre subsidiary Nxtra by Airtel Africa, has officially broken ground on what is set to become East Africa’s largest data centre. Located at Tatu City, the facility will deliver a planned capacity of 44 megawatts (MW) once fully built. This will make it the single biggest project of its kind in the region.
The centre will support next-generation cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) workloads, with GPU-ready racks, 99.999% uptime and advanced security systems. Construction will be executed in two phases of 22MW each. Each facility is expected to go live in the first quarter of 2027.
“The scale and quality of this facility will firmly place Kenya on the map as a trusted host for global and regional digital infrastructure,” said Cabinet Secretary for ICT, William Kabogo, during the groundbreaking.
How Nxtra Stacks Up Against Competitors
Kenya has become one of Africa’s most competitive data centre markets. There are a number of players already operating high-capacity facilities in the country. But Airtel’s Nxtra is set to dwarf existing operations in both Nairobi and Mombasa.
- IXAfrica (Nairobi): Currently runs NBOX1.1, a 4.5MW hyperscale, AI-ready, carrier-neutral facility with 780 racks. IXAfrica is also building NBOX1.2, a much larger 18MW extension with six data halls.
- Icolo (Mombasa & Nairobi):
- MBA1 in Miritini has been live since 2017. It has a 13MW IT load and 1,800 racks.
- MBA2 can handle 1.8MW and is optimized for subsea cable landings.
- NBO1 in Nairobi provides colocation with 2.5MVA capacity, 2N redundancy and carrier-neutral connectivity.
- Airtel Nxtra (Tatu City): At 44MW, it will more than double IXAfrica’s planned NBOX1.2 capacity and far exceed Icolo’s facilities.
This leap in scale positions Airtel not just as a telecoms operator, but as a serious infrastructure player competing directly with carrier-neutral data centre specialists.
For Kenya’s digital economy, the project shows the country’s role as a regional tech hub that is attractive to hyperscalers and global cloud providers. For enterprises and startups, it promises lower latency, improved data sovereignty and reduced costs of hosting AI and cloud workloads locally rather than abroad.
With demand for AI-ready infrastructure surging, Airtel is positioning itself as a go-to partner for cloud and AI hosting across Africa.
“By building specialized data centre capacity in major markets, Nxtra is ensuring Africa can fully leverage next-generation technologies in a secure and sustainable environment,” said Yashnath Issur, CEO of Nxtra Africa.
Globally, data centres are powering the AI and cloud boom. In Africa, demand is rising, with Microsoft, AWS, and Google Cloud all deepening their presence. Airtel’s Nxtra entry comes at a critical time, one where local capacity and energy-efficient, hyperscale-ready facilities are seen as essential for digital transformation.
Airtel Kenya MD Ashish Malhotra added that the Tatu City site is not just infrastructure but a catalyst for innovation:
“This facility will attract global tech players, lower costs, and strengthen Kenya’s role as a regional hub for technology and innovation.”
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Also Read: Safaricom and iXAfrica Partner to Launch East Africa’s First AI-Ready Data Center Services
