Kenya’s Equity Bank has reserved a space at Konza Technology City – a new technology-themed development in Machakos County 64 km south of the country’s capital Nairobi – to build a Sh3 billion ($34.1 million) electronic data centre.
The Konza Technopolis Development Authority (KOTDA) made this known on Thursday when it announced the prospects of the park dubbed “where African silicon savannah begins”, stating that about 345 local and international companies have made their interests in moving to the park known.
“We have received 345 local and international investors who have expressed interest, among the locals is Equity Bank that intends to build a Sh3 billion data centre,” Catherine Adeya, acting CEO of Konza Technopolis Development Authority (KOTDA) told reporters during a media tour of the park on Thursday.
At the moment, Equity Bank stores its electronic information at its data centre based at its Nairobi headquarters and backs it up at a leased space at East Africa Data centre, Mombasa Road, also in the Kenyan capital.
The bank’s technological growth of recent has been unprecedented, with a recently acquired Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNO) licence making it capable of offering mobile money and telecommunication services, a development expected to increase the volumes of data it generates, hence setting up a data centre seem a strategic move.
The first phase of the 5000-acre tech city located in Machakos County, 64 km south of Nairobi will cover 400 acres of land, which the University of Nairobi Enterprise Services (UNES) has already mapped out.
16,200 jobs are expected to be created when construction of the first phase ends, with various structures like a university complex, offices, residential houses, ICT research centres and parks expected to be located in Konza.
Foreign and local business process outsourcing (BPO) companies will not be left out, as well as a science park, shopping malls, hotels, a convention centre, international schools and health facilities.
Construction was given a go-ahead on Friday after UNES completed survey. (VENTURES AFRICA)
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