Airtel takes on Safaricom with Sh5.6b data centre

Airtel Africa is taking the fight to Safaricom’s dominant data business with a $44 million (Sh5.68 billion) hyperscale data centre in Nairobi, part of a strategic push to capture enterprise and home broadband customers in the country.  

The facility under construction in Tatu City, expected to be the largest data centre in East Africa at 44 megawatts, positions Airtel to challenge Safaricom’s stronghold on cloud and corporate data services.

The Kenyan unit of Vodacom Group has long led the market in high-margin enterprise offerings, but Airtel’s investment signals an aggressive challenge, analysts said.  

“This is expected to be the biggest data centre in East Africa,” Airtel Africa said in its full-year results statement. The facility, slated to go live in the first quarter of 2027, will support the company’s home broadband and enterprise business – a strategic priority as it diversifies beyond voice and mobile money. 

The Nairobi project mirrors a similar 38-megawatt data centre under construction in Lagos, Nigeria, underscoring Airtel’s ambition to become a pan-African digital infrastructure player. 

Across its 14-country footprint, the company reported a 24 per cent jump in annual revenue to $6.415 billion (Sh826.27 billion), driven by a 35.2 per cent surge in data revenue – now the largest component of group revenue.

Mobile money revenue rose 28.4 per cent, with the customer base expanding 21.3 per cent to 54.1 million users. 

In East Africa – which includes Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi and Rwanda – revenue grew 17.8 per cent for the year ended March 31. Mobile money revenue in the region climbed 26.1 per cent.  

Chief Executive Sunil Taldar credited “adoption of new digital technologies and AI” for unlocking growth, noting that smartphone customers rose 22 per cent to 91 million group-wide, driving a near-50 per cent increase in data traffic. The company is also partnering with Elon Musk’s SpaceX to introduce Starlink Direct-to-Cell satellite connectivity across its 14 markets, including Kenya – a move that could extend its reach into rural areas where internet coverage remains patchy.