Kenya's data centre market poised to hit Sh104bn in value by 2031
ICT CS William Kabogo, during the groundbreaking of the Nxtra Data Centre, set to be East Africa’s largest data centre, designed to meet the latest infrastructure requirements for cloud and AI services. Looking on is Airtel Kenya Managing Director Ashish Malhotra, Communications Authority Assistant Director Compliance Peter Ikumilu and Nxtra Africa CEO, Yashnath Issur.
Kenya's data centre market is poised to hit KES104.4 billion by 2031 reflecting a 20.27 percent annual growth from KES34.5 billion value recorded in 2025.
According to market disclosures from the Kenya Data Center Market - Investment Analysis & Growth Opportunities 2026-2031 survey, this growth will be powered by cloud adoption and ongoing shift to digital systems.
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Other catalysts driving growth in Kenya's data centre market are: improving international connectivity, availability of green energy, investment from colocation, hyperscale and enterprise data center operators.
At the moment, Kenya is interlinked to seven submarine cable systems including 2Africa, Djibouti Africa Regional Express 1, Eastern Africa Submarine System and, Lower Indian Ocean Network 2.
Other submarine systems in Kenya are PEACE Cable, SEACOM/Tata TGN-Eurasia, and The East African Marine System (TEAMS).
The survey notes that the East African country will be linked to two additional systems by December next year. These are Africa-1 and Daraja, further strengthening bandwidth availability, network resilience and Nairobi's position as the region's digital infrastructure hub.
Colocation data centers
Statistics show that the country currently hosts 13 colocation data centers, with most facilities developed in line with Tier III standards, which allows for maintenance or repairs without customers encountering downtime.
Nairobi city remains the country's leading data center destination. As of September 2025, the city had eight existing and seven upcoming facilities, including advanced colocation sites, hyperscale developments, and dedicated cloud infrastructure.
In July 2025, Kenya Electricity Generating Company installed a Battery Energy Storage System to support its modular data center in Nairobi and improve power stability and operational resilience.
The market includes nine identified upcoming facilities across more than four locations, creating new opportunities for technology providers, engineering firms, construction contractors, and support infrastructure suppliers.
Established data center investors in Kenya include Africa Data Centres, iColo, a Digital Realty company, iXAfrica Data Centres, Safaricom PLC, and Telkom Kenya.
In September 2025, iXAfrica Data Centres secured financing from Rand Merchant Bank to expand its NBOX1 facility backed by $50 million investment from Helios.
New entrants are increasing competition and accelerating capacity development. Nxtra by Airtel, Cloudoon, and G42 are among the companies entering or expanding within the Kenya data center market.
In September 2025, Airtel's Nxtra business began constructing a Nairobi data center expected to attract an investment of approximately KES 19 billion, equivalent to about $147 million. The project is planned in two phases and is expected to become operational by the first quarter of 2027.
In March 2024, G42 signed a memorandum of understanding with Kenyan developer EcoCloud to establish a large-scale green data center campus. The first phase is planned to deliver 100 MW of IT capacity, with a long-term ambition to scale to 1 GW.
If completed as planned, the campus would rank among the largest proposed data center developments in Africa.
