Sustainable data centres in Africa, supporting the local economies and digital transformation in the region

Background

In March 2021, Meridiam partnered with Roha Africa to co-develop a platform of carrier-neutral, co-location data centres of international (Tier III) standard across Africa under the “Raxio” brand. The objective is the design, finance, construction and O&M of 7 sites.

The investment is based on the idea of African economies leapfrogging and becoming increasingly digitalized thereby driving up the demand for the use of data centres, while available local capacity remains under-developed. The offerings cater the specific needs of financial services, telecoms, cloud service providers, corporates as well as government agencies. The sites are developed with modular designs to adapt to future client needs.

Financial close was achieved in April 2023 for the first $73m tranche of a wider, 13-year, $170m sustainability-linked senior debt package from Proparco and EAIF. The first tranche supports the first phases of the initial 7 sites with the additional amount available for expansions on these first sites (to increase capacity from 500kW to 1.5MW) as well as the construction of 3 other sites at a later stage.

Stage

Financial Close

ESG/SDG Key Facts

Raxio has an up-to-date E&S Risk Assessment (based on IFC Performance Standards) in place. The Head of ESG/HSE has been focusing on building E&S frameworks and finalising key E&S deliverables in the context of the senior debt financing – 80% of the ESAP has been closed. Uganda, Ethiopia, Côte d’Ivoire, DRC (replacement underway) and Mozambique now have local EHS representatives overseeing the E&S activities of the sites and reporting to the Head of ESG/HSE Manager.
All sites under construction have obtained an environmental permit.
Raxio continues to provide an improved HSSE training for its partner site leads/site HSSE representatives/partner HSSE representatives and project managers. Accordingly, there is a noticeable improvement on all project sites from HSE perspective and general site tidiness. A longer term ESG strategy is also in the works to further enhance commitment to ESG principles, ensure alignment with SDGs and integrate ESG policies more thoroughly into Raxio’s operations and decision making processes by setting clear targets and benchmarks.

SDG Achievements and Roadmap

SDG 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy):

As part of efforts to ensure the deployment of environmentally friendly backup power solution, Raxio was able to obtain a PIDG (Private Infrastructure Development Group) technical assistance grant to conduct a study on the feasibility of renewables.
In this context, the team has mandated TeraTech, an international consulting and engineering services firm based in the US to carry out a study in relation to the integration of solar and other renewables into the energy mix of a Tier III Data centre in Mozambique and Côte d’Ivoire starting in Q2 2025. The study aims to explore the use of other types of climate positive technologies including hydrogen fuel cells and batteries. Additionally, Raxio is exploring opportunities with Mozambique Industrial Park to integrate solar energy into operations at the Mozambique site. The park is currently initiating an ESIA process and is in discussion with EDM (local utility provider) to export solar power to the grid.
Consequently, Raxio is preparing to enter into a potential PPA to formalize this collaboration.
With Meridiam’s support, Raxio is expected to start developing a low-carbon development charter and associated process in 2025.

SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth):

To date, all the constructed sites have each created on average 120 (150 at the peak of construction) employment opportunities for local community members during the civil works and M&E kit out phases, with knowledge transfer of new technologies.