World Bank Backs Expansion of African Data Infrastructure with $100M Raxio Deal

The International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private investment arm of the World Bank Group, has made a landmark $100 million debt financing commitment to Raxio Group, a Sub-Saharan data center platform. This funding aims to accelerate deployment of critical infrastructure that powers AI, cloud computing, and digital financial services across underserved African markets.

Expansion Across the Continent

With this deal, Raxio plans to double its network of colocation data centers within three years in countries including Ethiopia, Mozambique, Democratic Republic of Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Tanzania, and Angola. Existing markets such as Uganda continue to be a strong base for the company as it scales toward new regions. The new centers are designed to meet Tier III standards — carrier-neutral, secure, highly reliable — to ensure uptime, latency, and performance.

Why This Investment Matters

Africa currently has less than 1% of global data center capacity despite having rapidly increasing demand, particularly from mobile and cloud usage. Local data hosting reduces latency, improves speed, lowers cost for businesses, enhances privacy, and gives governments more control over cybersecurity and regulation. This $100M deal is IFC’s largest digital infrastructure investment in Africa to date.

Challenges & Forward Outlook

Key challenges remain: ensuring reliable power supply, navigating regulatory hurdles, and managing political risks in frontier markets. However, with IFC’s support — including blend finance and risk mitigation — Raxio is in a strong position to lead the next phase of Africa’s digital infrastructure build-out