Among seven African countries and the rest of Africa, Ghana is ranked 4th in terms of the most digitally matured and likeliest nation to receive bulk of data centre investments over the coming years, Fitch Solutions “Outlook for Africa’s Data Centre Market” has revealed.

According to the report, the African telecoms market is poised to provide long-term demand for data centres as it undergoes significant technological development, and Ghana will be among the frontrunners.

This will provide boost for investment and job opportunities in the ICT space.

“Governments in the region including Ghana are positioning their countries as regional hubs for IT vendors, which has attracted significant data centre investment. Global players have invested to extend their presence in the African data centre market with Amazon Web Services and Microsoft launching data centres in South Africa, with Huawei also announcing plans to construct a facility in the country. In addition, the market is seeing investment from local players including telecoms operators MTN and Vodacom as well as IT players such as SEACOM and Liquid Telecom”.

“In 2021 alone, a number of markets have been the beneficiaries of new data centre investments”, the report added.

Ghana’s telecommunication industry is said to be one of the fastest growing on the continent with the 4G technology growing at a rapid pace.

In the not too distant future, the 5th Generation Mobile Technology will be introduced in the country. The 5G technology is expected to deliver higher data speeds, improve efficiency and virtually connect everyone and everything together including machines, objects, and devices.

The report also said the introduction of the 5th Generation Technology will support data centre investments as vendors look to meet rising demand for remote computing and data processing within Ghana and the rest of the continent.

According to data from the National Communications Authority, there were about 26.4 million data subscribers in the country as of the end of December last year.

MTN alone had about 19.1 million subscribers.

On the continent, South Africa, Egypt and Kenya are ranked 1st, 2nd and 3rd respectively with matured data centers.