Pan-African data center and fiber group WIOCC has secured green financing to fund its data center and fiber roll-out.

A financing package from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Proparco announced this week will fund WIOCC’s expansion strategy in three African countries.

WIOCC launched a data center unit, Open Access Data Centres (OADC), in 2021.

The financing includes loans of $10 million and ZAR 200 million ($11m) from IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, and $20 million from Proparco, a development finance institution and subsidiary of the Agence Française de Développement Group.

WIOCC also expects to sign an additional $10 million loan for its expansion in Nigeria with RMB in the next few weeks.

The company will use the funding to expand its core and Edge data centers in the DRC, Nigeria, and South Africa. It will also grow its fiber networks.

The financing is structured as a sustainability-linked debt, with pricing linked to WIOCC’s commitment to improve the energy efficiency of its data centers and obtain EDGE green building certification for them.

Formed in 2008, African wholesale network firm WIOCC is part of consortiums for the EASSy, EIG, WACS, TE North, SEA-ME-WE 5, and the Facebook-led 2Africa cable systems.

The company has data centers in operation and development in Lagos, Nigeria; Kinasha, DRC; and four in South Africa across Johannesburg, Durban, and Cape Town (x2). The company is also rolling out dozens of Edge sites across South Africa.

OADC has said it plans facilities in up to 20 countries across Africa, including; Accra, Ghana; Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire; and Mombasa & Nairobi, Kenya. It has previously announced plans for a site in Mogadishu, Somalia.

WIOCC recently launched a new managed network and infrastructure services company, known as Open Access Technical Services (OATS).

“We are excited to conclude this next stage of our capital raise, which will enable significant expansion, adding further capacity to our open-access data center operation and extending open-access hyperscale national, international, and metro connectivity across our key markets in Nigeria, southern Africa, the DRC and Greater East and Central Africa,” said Chris Wood, CEO of WIOCC Group. “Our policy of continual investment in infrastructure to create Africa’s first, truly open-access interconnected digital ecosystem means ongoing investment for growth, ensuring readiness to meet the future demands of our clients’ customers throughout Africa.”

Proparco has previously given loans to Torrecom, Raxio, and Sonatel.

“The Agence Française de Développement Group have been supporting WIOCC since its inception back in 2007,” said Ariane Ducreux, head of energy, digital, and infrastructure at Proparco. “We are very proud to pursue this long-term partnership by supporting the expansion of the Open Access Data Centres’ activities in Nigeria, South Africa, DRC and beyond. The sustainability-linked structure of this new financing, along with technical assistance support, also aims to incentivize the rollout of energy and water-efficient data centers, while adapting implementations to the specs of each site environment.”

A member of the World Bank, IFC aims to encourage private-sector development in less developed countries. The group has provided financing to the likes of Togocom, Sonatel, Liquid Intelligent Technologies, Airtel Africa, DigitalBridge’s Scala Data Centers and OData in Brazil, and others.

“Our long-standing partnership with WIOCC of more than 15 years demonstrates IFC’s commitment to increasing affordable and reliable digital connectivity in Africa through shared infrastructure. This new debt facility will help WIOCC fulfill its ambition to establish an integrated, open-access, core-to-edge cloud ecosystem throughout the African continent, which is critical to bridge the digital divide,” said Bertrand de la Borde, IFC Global Industry Director of infrastructure.

Part of the FirstRand Group, RMB Nigeria Limited is an African corporate and investment bank. Africa Data Centres secured $109m in financing from RMB earlier this month.

“RMB is thrilled to be a strategic banking partner to WIOCC. Digital Infrastructure is one of our core sectors of expertise as a Bank. As such, we are excited at the opportunity to support this deal and remain committed to partnering with WIOCC on its growth journey across the continent,” said Chidi Iwuchukwu, head of investment banking, broader Africa – RMB.

Sustainability-linked financing is becoming an increasingly popular way for data center firms and telcos to raise funds for projects.