A gateway to economic growth and energy security in Africa

AS SOMEONE who has spent years working at the intersection of energy policy, infrastructure development, and stakeholder engagement, I have seen firsthand how critical energy access and reliability are to economic growth.

- ANDREW BIEMER

In Africa, where energy poverty remains a persistent barrier to prosperity, the conversation about new infrastructure often focuses on traditional generation and distribution. But we should also be asking: Are data centres a viable catalyst for economic transformation and greater energy security on the continent? I believe the answer is yes - if we think strategically.

At first glance, data centres might seem like a luxury reserved for highly developed economies. After all, they are energy-intensive facilities built to serve digital economies that depend on cloud services, financial transactions, logistics, and communications. However, framing data centres only as high-end infrastructure misses their potential to drive much broader development goals.

First, data centres offer an opportunity to stimulate local economies. Their construction and operation require skilled labour across multiple sectors - electrical, mechanical, IT, and security - and they encourage the development of a more specialised workforce. These are not one-time construction projects; data centres need ongoing maintenance, operations staff, and support services, which create stable, long-term jobs. In markets like Africa, where unemployment is often high among young people, building this kind of workforce ecosystem can have a profound multiplier effect across communities.