Safaricom Ethiopia is building a 100 million dollar data centre in Addis Abeba.
According to Addis Fortune News, the data centre was initially assembled in China and later shipped to Djibouti. Safaricom’s executives say the data centre is part of the $300 million investment they have budgeted for the first year of the telco’s operation in the country.
The company plans to install similar data centres in Adama and Dire Dawa as it scales up operations, according to Pedro Rabacal, chief technology and information officer at Safaricom Ethiopia Plc.
At such a monumental time where we are building our network, we are convicted to bring the best telecom technology to Ethiopia. We invite you to listen to @pedrorabacal1 , Chief Technology Officer at Safaricom Ethiopia, offering Insights about the first Data Center pic.twitter.com/4LZrH0nBZ1— Safaricom Ethiopia (@SafaricomET) January 17, 2022
Pedro Rabacal, a Vodacom Group veteran for 22 years, served for 7 years as the CTO for Vodacom Mozambique before being named to his current role at Safaricom Ethiopia. He was part of the 11-member executive team named by the telco in September last year.
Prior to joining the Mozambique leadership team, Pedro led several key portfolios within Vodacom South Africa as well as Vodacom Group that pushed forward technology evolution from the early years of GPRS, on to 3G, 4G and recently the first deployment of 5G in Mozambique. Before joining Vodacom, he was the Regional CTO for South Africa’s telecoms industry regulator, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA).
The Safaricom-led consortium was awarded the country’s first-ever private telecom operator’s license last year after offering $850 million. The telco is expected to launch commercial operations in the coming months.
