Why Visa plans to open its first African data centre
A mix of government policies, growing digital demand, and booming market projections is finally drawing Big Tech to invest in Africa’s data centres.
If you’ve ever wondered why some payments feel slower or costlier in Africa than elsewhere, here’s a clue. Until now, most transactions were routed through data centres in the U.S., U.K., and Singapore. That’s a long way for your money to travel. For Visa, and frankly for anyone trying to scale payments across the continent, that’s a problem.
So this July, Visa opened its first African data centre in Johannesburg, South Africa, investing ~$54 million to build a stronger local backbone for more than 350 million unbanked African adults.
Visa adds that the Johannesburg facility is part of its $1 billion Africa strategy. Beyond the brick-and-mortar build, the investment is also about financial inclusion, helping small businesses move from cash to digital payments, and preparing the network for AI-driven services like fraud detection. The centre can process local transactions without routing them halfway across the globe, which is a critical step for speed and reliability.
But if we zoom out, what Visa is doing is part of a trend where the world’s biggest tech companies are finally treating Africa as a serious digital market.
Acquah Nana Yeboah
And if you're wondering why, well, it could be because of a couple of reasons
For one, Africa’s data center market was valued at $3.49 billion in 2024 and is projected to nearly double to $6.81 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of ~11.8% (via Globe Newswire). Yet the continent hosts just 229 data centers across 39 countries—less than 2% of the world’s total capacity.
For companies like Visa, Microsoft, or Google, there’s no scaling payments, cloud, or AI without first fixing that bottleneck.
Another reason could be politics. Governments across the continent are pushing for data sovereignty. In countries like Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa, there's a demand that data about their citizens stay within their borders. For companies like Visa, that makes a local footprint not optional but required.
This particular reason could be why we're seeing big tech companies like Microsoft partnering with G42 to build a data centre in Kenya. Or why Google’s Equiano subsea cable landed in Namibia with plans to link Africa to Europe with massive new capacity.
But building a data center in Africa comes with its own challenges. The continent still faces power shortages, regulatory fragmentation, and a widening skills gap—68,000 cybersecurity roles remain unfilled. If laws tighten unevenly or infrastructure fails to scale, even the most aggressive investments could hit snags.
But if we look at the long game, the momentum is undeniable. Visa’s Johannesburg build is symbolic: it shows how mainstream the Africa bet has become. Ten years ago, cloud infrastructure in Africa was an afterthought. Today, it’s the latest frontier for global tech expansion, and nobody wants to miss the land grab.
For Africans, that means digital services will be faster, safer, and more local. For Africa as a whole, it signals a turning point: the continent could finally become a first-class digital market, not just for payments, but for AI, smart cities, and innovation yet to come. And if Visa sees that future, you can bet every other global tech giant does too.
Emmanuel Oyedeji
