By Faith Waithaka
With some of Africa’s biggest data centre providers now based in West Africa, it would be safe to say that the region is going that an era of tremendous and even unprecedented growth.
Traditionally quite modest, with capacities ranging from one to three Megawatts (MW), West Africa now features numerous high-capacity datacentres; with plans underway to build its first Tier-4, 1500 rack data centre later this year.
But with size comes complexity. Building a Tier-4 data centre is not simply a matter of scaling up from a 1 MW facility; technical requirements and complexities increase exponentially.
Let’s use UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS) as an example. While commissioning a single unit is quite straightforward, paralleling multiple systems to achieve higher power outputs introduces significant complexity.
Here, you require an experienced design engineer that can plan for the integration of multiple systems from get-go, ensuring that components like bus bars and cables can handle the combined power load. Without this foresight, designs may fall short and necessitate costly and time-consuming revisions.
It’s double-edged sword, West Africa is going through a wonderful growth era but at the same time facing a lack of skilled individuals that can handle these big data centre projects. And unlike our peers in countries such as Sweden and Ireland, which have extensive experience with 40 MW or even 100 MW data centres, West Africa is still building its capacity.
Also, this skills gap spans from design and technical implementation to the ongoing maintenance of operations facilities, once up and running. There is therefore a critical need to develop a workforce capable of supporting both 1 MW facilities and large-scale 100 MW operations.
OEMs’ part to play
As global entities with extensive experience and expertise, OEMs can transfer knowledge and best practices to the West African data centre market. And it works. In East Africa, Schneider Electric is proactively leveraging its global expertise to up-skill local teams in countries like Kenya to among others bring in specialists from Europe to work alongside local engineers.
This hands-on, on-the-job training leaves a lasting impact, building local capacity and importantly ensuring that the skills remain within the region.
However, OEMs can’t do it alone, and they shouldn’t. To accelerate the up-skilling process, OEMs should form strategic partnerships with local companies, data centre operators, and educational institutions.
In turn, these partnerships can facilitate comprehensive training programmes, internships, and graduate placements, creating a pipeline of skilled professionals ready to meet the demands of the growing market.
There is also another element to consider; the positive impact Africa’s data centre growth will have on the rest of the world.
These facilities are becoming integral to the global digital infrastructure, supporting a wide range of services and applications.
It is therefore in all role players’ best interest to ensure that these data centres are built and operated to the highest standards. This investment will not only support local economies but also enhance the reliability and resilience of the global digital ecosystem.
Through strategic, local partnership, OEMs like Schneider Electric can contribute to an environment that fosters knowledge transfer and relevant, comprehensive training programmes.
Success is always reliant on the sum of its parts and OEMs have an important role to play in establishing West Africa as key player in the global data centre industry.
Faith Waithaka, works at Schneider Electric as Cloud and Service Provider Segment Sales Lead: Anglophone Africa.
