Africa’s participation in the global digital infrastructure boom remains limited despite rapid expansion across the world’s data-centre industry.
A new report has revealed that the continent accounts for only 0.6 percent of global data-centre capacity even as worldwide investment in digital infrastructure is projected to approach $3 trillion over the next five years.
The findings are contained in a new study by the Africa Data Centres Association titled “Data Centres in Africa 2026: The Economic Report.” The report examines Africa’s position within the rapidly expanding global digital infrastructure market and highlights the widening gap between the continent and more developed digital economies.
While the sector is growing steadily across Africa, analysts say it is still struggling to keep pace with the speed of global expansion. The situation is raising concerns about digital sovereignty, economic competitiveness and Africa’s readiness for artificial intelligence driven growth.
Global data-centre boom accelerates
According to the report, the global data-centre industry is undergoing unprecedented growth driven by demand for cloud computing, artificial intelligence workloads and increased digital connectivity.
The global market was valued at about $243 billion in 2025 and is expected to double by 2032. Analysts attribute the growth to massive investment flows from governments, technology firms and financial institutions seeking to build the infrastructure needed to support the world’s expanding digital economy.
Estimates from Moody’s and JLL suggest that nearly $3 trillion will be invested globally in data-centre development within the next five years. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development also reports that data-centre projects accounted for more than one fifth of global greenfield foreign direct investment in 2025.
The report describes data centres as “digital gold,” reflecting their growing strategic importance in supporting artificial intelligence systems, cloud platforms, financial services and digital public infrastructure.
Several technological developments are accelerating demand. Cloud adoption continues to move enterprise workloads away from on premise systems while artificial intelligence training and inference workloads are rapidly increasing computing requirements.
Forecasts cited in the report suggest that artificial intelligence alone could triple global data-centre capacity demand by 2030 and account for roughly 70 percent of incremental growth in the sector. Additional pressure from video streaming services, expanding e-commerce platforms and the growth of Internet of Things devices is further increasing global demand for data infrastructure.
Africa’s limited share of the global market
Despite the global surge in investment, Africa’s role in the industry remains relatively small. The United States hosts roughly 45 percent of the world’s data centres while Africa contributes less than one percent of global capacity.
Currently the continent hosts an estimated 220 to 230 data-centre facilities spread across 38 countries. However, most of this infrastructure is concentrated in only a few regional hubs including South Africa, Egypt, Kenya and Nigeria.
The African data-centre market is projected to reach about $9.2 billion by 2029. Yet many African countries still rely heavily on offshore hosting services to manage and store digital data.
Development institutions estimate that a large proportion of data generated within Africa is stored outside the continent, mainly in Europe and North America. This reliance on foreign hosting infrastructure raises concerns about control over sensitive information and the continent’s long term digital independence.
Data sovereignty concerns grow
The report argues that data centres have become central to national competitiveness because their ownership and location determine how digital information is governed.
When data is hosted outside Africa, it falls under foreign legal jurisdictions. This limits the ability of governments to regulate and protect sensitive information while raising questions about digital sovereignty and regulatory autonomy.
African enterprises and public institutions also rely heavily on global cloud providers such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud. Many of the core infrastructure assets supporting these platforms remain located outside Africa.
Ownership patterns in the sector also present challenges. Although some governments are investing in national data infrastructure, most large carrier neutral data centres and hyperscale campuses across the continent are financed by foreign private equity and operated by international firms.
At the same time, supply chain vulnerabilities persist. Critical components such as servers, semiconductors and networking hardware are almost entirely imported, exposing African infrastructure development to global trade disruptions and export restrictions.
Regulation improving but enforcement remains weak
The report notes that African governments have made progress in developing regulatory frameworks to support the digital economy. More than 40 countries across the continent have enacted data protection laws and established regulatory authorities.
In addition, 19 African countries have ratified the Malabo Convention, which focuses on cybersecurity and data governance. However, analysts say enforcement capacity often lags behind legislative ambition.
As a result, the practical impact of these regulations remains limited in many countries, slowing efforts to strengthen digital governance and build investor confidence in the sector.
Artificial intelligence ambitions raise urgency
Africa’s digital infrastructure challenge comes at a time when governments and industry leaders are increasingly focusing on artificial intelligence development.
The report highlights 2025 as the year of the Africa Declaration on Artificial Intelligence, which secured $60 billion in commitments to build AI capabilities across the continent.
Industry leaders argue that achieving meaningful digital sovereignty will require significant investment in local computing infrastructure and sustainable energy systems that can support high capacity data processing.
Ayotunde Coker, chief executive officer of Open Access Data Centres (OADC), stressed the importance of expanding Africa’s digital infrastructure.
“Africa’s digital independence depends on expanding local processing capacity supported by sustainable energy systems and AI infrastructure aligned with regional priorities.”
Ayotunde Coker
Infrastructure growth still lagging global pace
Africa’s data-centre capacity is projected to triple by 2030, reaching approximately 1.2 gigawatts of total IT load. However, global capacity is expected to quadruple during the same period.
This means that even as Africa expands its infrastructure, the overall global gap could continue to widen.
Internet access also remains a major barrier to digital growth. A 2025 study cited in the report found that consumers in low income African countries may spend up to 26.4 percent of their average monthly income on internet access.
Although about 47 percent of Africans are mobile subscribers, only 28 percent actively use mobile internet services. Data consumption levels are also significantly lower than global averages, with sub Saharan Africa recording about 6.7GB of monthly smartphone data usage compared with a global average of 21.6GB.
However, analysts believe improvements in internet infrastructure could unlock significant growth. The International Finance Corporation estimates that doubling undersea cable capacity could reduce internet prices by between 30 and 50 percent, which could sharply increase data consumption and accelerate demand for local data centres.
Data centres seen as foundation for digital transformation
The report concludes that data centres are becoming the backbone of Africa’s digital economy. They support cloud services, artificial intelligence innovation and digital public infrastructure across sectors.
Their location, ownership structures and integration with energy systems are increasingly shaping Africa’s economic competitiveness.
Although Africa currently hosts less than one percent of global data-centre capacity, analysts believe the sector is entering a new phase driven by artificial intelligence ready facilities, platform based infrastructure models and diversified financing sources.
If investment accelerates and digital adoption improves, Africa could begin to close the gap in the global data economy and strengthen its digital sovereignty in the years ahead.
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