Thermal management at the heart of Airtel Africa’s large-scale data centre expansion.
Wojtek Piorko, managing director for Africa at Vertiv. All images supplied by Vertiv.
As Africa’s data economy accelerates, Vertiv, a global leader in critical digital infrastructure and continuity solutions, is reinforcing its role in enabling efficient, sustainable and resilient data centres through advanced thermal management technologies. The company announced a major new phase in its collaboration with Airtel Africa, supporting the rollout of the telecom group’s Nxtra data centre network – starting with a large-scale facility in Nigeria.
At the core of this expansion lies the challenge of managing heat loads from increasingly dense computing environments. Vertiv will deploy a suite of high-efficiency cooling and power systems to ensure Nxtra’s first Nigerian facility achieves the required performance and uptime while minimising energy consumption.
“Nxtra has been a valued customer for nearly three decades,” said Karsten Winther, president of Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) for Vertiv. “This next chapter in our collaboration demonstrates the power of combining local support in Africa with international manufacturing and innovation.”
“As we invest into high capacity, high quality data centres for Africa, it was crucial to partner with a vendor who combines global capabilities with strong local presence,” said Yash Issur, CEO of Nxtra by Airtel Africa. “Vertiv’s extensive multinational expertise, coupled with their established service team in Africa, provides us the reliability and support we need. We’re particularly pleased to name Vertiv as a main vendor for the first project in Nigeria and extend a collaboration ranging from India to Africa.”
Nxtra collaboration.
Planned growth across Africa
The Nigerian facility of 42MW of capacity will be completed in a four-phase rollout process, expected to be fully operational by 2028. Vertiv will provide thermal management solutions and uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems with batteries for the project, marking the start of a three-year rollout across Africa that will deliver energy-efficient, scalable and reliable infrastructure. Vertiv will also provide commissioning, handover, and five years of maintenance services supported by its established Nigerian service team. This enables Nxtra’s facilities to have strong on-the-ground support for long-term operations.
Wojtek Piorko, managing director for Africa at Vertiv says: “Africa’s growing, data-hungry population is a key driver of digital growth on the continent, and more data centres are required to meet this demand. Our collaboration in Africa with Nxtra marks an important milestone in strengthening Africa’s critical digital infrastructure. Together, we are bringing proven global expertise and advanced technology into Nigeria and beyond.”
In addition to the Nigerian site, Vertiv is also working with Nxtra on forward-looking projects in the markets where Airtel Africa operates, with the Nairobi-based operation anticipated to surpass the Nigerian site in scale.
Source: Vertiv
