Lagos, Nigeria, June 18 – A financing package announced today from IFC and Proparco for digital infrastructure provider WIOCC Group will fund WIOCC's expansion strategy in three African countries, enhancing the continent's digital infrastructure and connectivity and supporting economic growth.
The financing includes loans of $10 million and ZAR 200 million from IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, and $20 million from Proparco, a development finance institution and subsidiary of the Agence Française de Développement Group. WIOCC expects to sign an additional $10 million loan for its expansion in Nigeria with RMB in the next few weeks.
Dan Croft (Regional Industry Manager, Infrastructure, Central Africa & Anglophone West Africa - IFC), Jean Guyonnet-Duperat (Country Director Nigeria - Proparco), Chris Wood (CEO - WIOCC Group), Chidi Iwuchukwu (Head of Investment Banking, Banking Division Africa - RMB)
With the funding, WIOCC Group will expand its core and edge data centres in the DRC, Nigeria, and South Africa to meet growing demand for colocation and other data centre services. It will also grow its fibre networks, helping bridge the digital divide, and fostering economic growth across Africa.
The financing is structured as a sustainability-linked debt, with pricing linked to WIOCC's commitment to improve the energy efficiency of its data centres and obtain EDGE green building certification for them. EDGE, an innovation of IFC, makes it easy to design and certify resource-efficient and zero carbon buildings.
"We are excited to conclude this next stage of our capital raise, which will enable significant expansion, adding further capacity to our open-access data centre operation and extending open-access hyperscale national, international, and metro connectivity across our key markets in Nigeria, southern Africa, the DRC and Greater East and Central Africa," said Chris Wood, CEO of WIOCC Group. "Our policy of continual investment in infrastructure to create Africa's first, truly open-access interconnected digital ecosystem means ongoing investment for growth, ensuring readiness to meet the future demands of our clients' customers throughout Africa."
"The Agence Française de Développement Group have been supporting WIOCC since its inception back in 2007," said Ariane Ducreux, Head of Energy, Digital and Infrastructure at PROPARCO. "We are very proud to pursue this long-term partnership by supporting the expansion of the Open Access Data Centres' activities in Nigeria, South Africa, DRC and beyond. Truly neutral and open-access data centres are the cornerstone of a diversified digital ecosystem. Local data storage and processing capacity are also vital for the resilience of Africa's digital network, as recent outages have demonstrated. The sustainability-linked structure of this new financing, along with technical assistance support, also aims to incentivize the rollout of energy and water efficient data centres, while adapting implementations to the specs of each site environment."
"Our long-standing partnership with WIOCC of more than 15 years demonstrates IFC's commitment to increasing affordable and reliable digital connectivity in Africa through shared infrastructure. This new debt facility will help WIOCC fulfil its ambition to establish an integrated, open-access, core-to-edge cloud ecosystem throughout the African continent, which is critical to bridge the digital divide," said Bertrand de la Borde, IFC Global Industry Director of infrastructure.
"RMB is thrilled to be a Strategic Banking Partner to WIOCC. Digital Infrastructure is one of our core sectors of expertise as a Bank. As such, we are excited at the opportunity to support this deal and remain committed to partnering with WIOCC on its growth journey across the continent," said Chidi Iwuchukwu (Head of Investment Banking, Broader Africa - RMB).
Since its inception in 2007, WIOCC has been investing in Africa's digital backbone, delivering open-access infrastructure to meet the growing demand for reliable connectivity solutions throughout the continent.
As WIOCC Group continues to transform digital Africa, this latest capital raise signifies a major milestone in its journey towards building a more connected Africa, fostering long-term partnerships and sustainability.
About WIOCC Group
Since 2007 WIOCC Group, Africa's converged open-access digital infrastructure leader, has been helping transform Africa's digital landscape by introducing client-centric innovations. WIOCC Group, the parent company of WIOCC, Africa's digital backbone, and Open Access Data Centres (OADC), Africa's fastest-growing data centre company, is pioneering and accelerating Africa's digital transformation. It is creating an environment in which all Africans can take advantage of world-class technology developments to build better lives, better businesses and a better world, by deploying converged open-access digital infrastructure (CODI) across Africa; infrastructure that will expedite and underpin Africa's digital transformation.
About IFC
IFC — a member of the World Bank Group — is the largest global development institution focused on the private sector in emerging markets. We work in more than 100 countries, using our capital, expertise, and influence to create markets and opportunities in developing countries. In fiscal year 2023, IFC committed a record US$43.7 billion to private companies and financial institutions in developing countries, leveraging the power of the private sector to end extreme poverty and boost shared prosperity as economies grapple with the impacts of global compounding crises. For more information, visit www.ifc.org . Stay Connected with IFC on social media.
About Proparco
PROPARCO, a subsidiary of Agence Française de Développement Group, has been working with the private sector for over 45 years for a more just and sustainable world. With an international network of 23 local offices, PROPARCO works closely with its partners to build sustainable solutions in response to environmental and social challenges in Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Latin America. PROPARCO benefits from sector-based expertise as well as a wide range of financial solutions tailored to the different stages of business development, notably thanks to its Digital Africa subsidiary, and its Propulse technical assistance offering designed to scale up the impacts and performance of its partners. PROPARCO's new "Acting together for greater impact" Strategy 2023-2027 enables, strengthens and amplifies the different ways in which it works with its partners.
To learn more: PROPARCO.fr/en/strategy
About RMB Nigeria Limited:
RMB Nigeria Limited, a member of the FirstRand Group, is a leading African Corporate and Investment Bank, offering its clients innovative, value-added advisory, funding, trading, corporate banking and principal investing solutions. For more information, visit www.rmb.com.ng.
