Building Africa’s digital backbone
We believe digitisation is a key driver of economic growth and efficiency increases, including services like smartphone data access, digital media, mobile connectivity, e-commerce, online payments and cross border trade. Building a thriving digital economy in Africa starts with the right infrastructure, including a reliable power supply, fast internet connectivity, and secure local data storage facilities. As a key investment focus for us, digital infrastructure is crucial to unlocking the continent’s digital potential and capitalising on the steep rise in data consumption across Africa.
With demand for data centres on track to exceed 1GW by 2030, we see an urgent need for long-term investment. As a result, we have been steadily building a portfolio of assets across the digital infrastructure landscape to help close the funding gap. In 2023, we invested in N+ONE, the leading carrier-neutral data centre operator in Morocco that provides world-class infrastructure for businesses across multiple sectors. Our aim is to support the expansion of the business into other African countries and accelerate digitalisation across the continent.
Morocco was identified as a strategic market early on - not just for its fast-growing digital economy, but because of its location at the crossroads of Europe, Africa and the Americas. Strong government support for IT development, rapid fibre rollout and growing corporate demand have all made Morocco a prime destination for digital investment. The country’s recent formulation of the Digital Morocco 2030 strategy will further accelerate this growth.
The strategy is aimed at job creation and provision of an ecosystem to launch a digital economy. The 2030 FIFA Soccer World Cup, which will be co-hosted by Morocco, will also provide the perfect platform to showcase the country’s digital advancement. Through our partnership with N+ONE, we are expanding existing the campuses in Morocco and launching a new campus in Senegal.
According to our Investment Director Moritz Thompson: “We’re aiming to build a truly pan-African platform that delivers trusted data solutions across the continent and supports the growing need for local data storage and processing.”
Beyond the fundamental role that data centres play in any digital economy, data resiliency and cyber security are of ever-growing importance. The electricity blackouts experienced in Portugal and Spain in April 2025 serve as a reminder of how critical contingency plans are and why a defensive IT strategy is so essential. This need is fuelling the colocation trend, whereby organisations house their own servers and computer hardware in third-party-operated data centre locations equipped with disaster recovery services. N+ONE provides just such a service, thereby protecting businesses from the critical disruptions to which businesses with on-site IT infrastructure are vulnerable.
Across this critical digital ecosystem, our impact includes:
Providing critical digital infrastructure for socioeconomic transformation: Infrastructure and connectivity are the dominant challenges to digital services trade in Africa and digital trade is inextricably linked to digital infrastructure. We believe that digital services have the potential to transform the entire economy. The Moroccan government has certainly recognised that N+ONE will make a critical contribution to Morocco’s digital strategy.
Supporting local enterprises: N+ONE provides a local solution to the Moroccan enterprise market through colocation or managed cloud services according to customer needs. Supporting data sovereignty: Currently, Africa’s data is largely stored outside the continent, however, it is critical that sensitive data does not cross countries and continents. Digital independence also means reduced costs and improved resilience. With the continent experiencing several major subsea cable disruptions over the past 18 months, we recognise that onshoring data reduces the vulnerability to intercontinental traffic disruptions.
Expanding access to education by boosting digital literacy: We recognise that access to the internet unlocks a host of high-quality online education that was previously restricted to a privileged few.
Prioritising energy efficiency: Where possible our focus lies in designing facilities that can run on renewable energy. This is particularly critical in an industry known for its high energy use. Cognisant of the energy requirements of the industry, we jointly believe in minimising electricity consumption in the first place and then sourcing as much as
possible from renewable energy sources. Morocco’s ongoing market liberalisation is going to provide better opportunities to maximise the use of sustainable power generation.
Creating jobs: Data centres and cloud computing infrastructure should go hand in hand with the relevant skills development, a crucial focus area for both us and N+ONE. In fact, N+ONE has a longstanding training and mentoring programme to develop the local workforce. The company recruits and trains personnel to build the workforce that Africa’s digital economy needs. Data centres create employment opportunities for skilled workforce and support Morocco’s transition from the primary and tertiary sectors to services.