Lagos, Nigeria - Across the world, companies are handling massive amounts of data, which demands advanced infrastructure for faster and more efficient data management. This global trend is equally felt in West Africa, where businesses are facing similar challenges with additional hurdles like unstable power and rising business costs.
Gbenga Adebowale, Enterprise Sales Director for Central Africa at Vertiv, a global company specializing in digital infrastructure, spoke on these issues during a recent "Accelerate" event by Vertiv in Nigeria. Addressing participants from Nigeria and Ghana, Adebowale explained that West African businesses are not just dealing with data growth, but also need smarter infrastructure solutions to handle it. "Intelligent infrastructure can help manage complexity, increase efficiency, and speed up data handling," he said.
Global Data Trends Resonate Locally
Guest speaker Eben Owen, Senior Business Director for Anglophone Africa at Uptime Institute, shared insights from the Uptime Institute’s recent global survey, which included African perspectives on data centre operations. The survey, one of the largest in the industry, involved over 850 data centre operators and nearly 700 vendors worldwide, with about 10% of responses from Africa. Findings showed that like their global counterparts, African data centres prioritize energy efficiency, address staffing shortages, and carefully manage cloud adoption.
"Digital infrastructure managers are focused on improving energy use, especially as government targets for reducing carbon emissions approach," said Owen. He noted that concerns over data security mean many companies still avoid using public cloud systems for critical data, preferring their own data centres for better control.
Promising Growth in West Africa’s Data Market
Nigeria’s technology sector is booming, spurred by industries such as oil, financial services, and fintech, along with the expansion of 5G networks and cloud computing. This growth is expected to push Nigeria's data centre market from USD 250 million in 2023 to USD 646 million by 2030. Ghana’s ICT sector is also contributing significantly to its economy, valued at approximately 1.5 billion Ghanaian cedis and growing steadily.
“With this positive outlook, Vertiv is committed to supporting West Africa’s data centre industry,” Adebowale stated. "Our mission is to empower and cool the data that powers our world, and we are here to help Africa meet its expanding data needs," he concluded.
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