Telecom billionaire Strive Masiyiwa launches fifth mega-data center in South Africa

Liquid Intelligent Technologies has announced the launch of its fifth mega-data center in South Africa as it moves to increase its dominance and market share on the continent.

The company aims to build at least 10 data centers in Africa’s largest cities.

The latest deal will boost Liquid’s telephone network in the country. The data centers hold an extensive volume of fibers, which ensures that all services are delivered properly and swiftly.

Liquid Intelligent Technologies is the largest pan-African operator of data centers. The company, which leads Africa in connectivity, innovation and intelligent technology, has an operational footprint in 13 countries, mainly in Eastern, Central and Southern Africa.

Liquid has an ambitious plan to build out Africa’s digital future through an extensive network covering more than 100,000 kilometers, while redefining network, cloud and cyber security offerings through strategic partnerships with leading global players, innovative business applications, smart cloud services and world-class security.

The company is a subsidiary of the larger Econet Global, which was founded by Strive Masiyiwa, a London-based Zimbabwean billionaire and technopreneur.

The businessman disclosed that the company had secured $500 million in equity and loans to develop the data centers.

“We have now secured over $500m in equity and loans to build what we call ‘Project Decima,’ the largest data center campuses in 10 African countries, each representing an investment of $50 million,” Masiyiwa said. “We call such large data center facilities ‘hyper scale,’ because they are designed to accommodate the needs of large global tech companies that support cloud-based services.”

Recently, it launched a partnership with Microsoft for its new Operator Connect for Microsoft Teams.

Through its OneVoice platform, Liquid enables Microsoft global customers to seamlessly integrate regulatory-compliant calling plans in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda, initiated from the Microsoft Teams Admin Center.