Ghana Trade Fair Centre to host US$300m mega data center

Africa Data Centres (ADC) will soon begin the construction of its strategic international data center as part of the Ghana Trade Fair Redevelopment Project.

This serves as a major boost for Ghana in the Government’s push to make digitalisation a major economic growth pillar and employment pool for the youth.

ADC recently signed the deal with the Ghana Trade Fair Company after a year of negotiations. All is now set for construction to begin at the Trade Fair site, La, Accra.

The ADC facility will support computation, data storage, and network and business applications for enterprises and institutions in both Ghana and abroad, particularly, the regional market.

Before a location for a new data centre facility is selected, the key factors an investor will consider include the cost and reliability of power, the cost of construction, the country’s telecom infrastructure/reliability, and the risk of natural disasters.

The Ghana Trade Fair Company Limited embarked upon the redevelopment of its current site into a modern mixed-use commercial enclave in 2019. As part of the project, a portion of the land was carved out to develop a modern Technology Park, dubbed “The Tech Hub” similar to Silicon Valley in California, on the master plan for the Redevelopment project.

The New ADC data center will be located within this Tech Hub area of the redevelopment master plan. The company is in talks with other technology companies to develop incubators and commercial facilities within the Tech Hub enclave.

Welcoming the new investment, His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, The President of the Republic of Ghana, said, “The establishment of Africa Data Centre’s new 10MW data centre, in the heart of Accra, is a significant step towards bridging the infrastructure gap, and developing further our digital economy. This investment and the Government’s drive at digitising all sectors of the economy will enable us to increase our capacity to access digital services and help even more to attract foreign direct investment into our economy.”

CEO of the Ghana Trade Fair Company Limited Dr Agnes Adu stated that: “Africa, for the most part, has been left out of the technology infrastructure until now. The new ADC data center is a huge step in the right direction. It comes just in time as Ghana is focused on digitisation and using technology to develop and boost our economy.”

The US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) announced a $300 million loan facility to Africa Data Centers (ADC), to construct this first-of-its-kind data centre in Ghana at the Trade Fair site.

The Accra data center is part of ADC’s expansion plans in Africa, spanning 10 markets across the continent, including South Africa, Zambia, Kenya, Rwanda, Egypt, Morocco, Senegal, Ivory Coast, and Angola.

Construction of the Accra Data center at the Trade Fair site is set to begin in June of 2023.