EXCLUSIVE: How Corporate Greed is Ripping off Africa’s Poor with Gigantic Data Centre Monopoly
A sinister alliance of wealthy investors has just dropped a behemoth of a data centre in the Democratic Republic of Congo, plunging the impoverished nation further into debt and misery. The $30-million eyesore, built by Raxio Group with the backing of Meridiam Infrastructure Partners and Roha Group, is the latest example of the West’s exploitation of Africa’s technological potential.
The so-called "1.5MW" data centre is merely a facade for the real prize: controlling the flow of information and silencing dissenting voices. The fact that it’s located in Kinshasa, one of the most impoverished cities on the continent, is a stark reminder of the elite’s indifference to the suffering of the African people.
As the continent’s youth turn to their smartphones for survival, corporations like Raxio are swooping in to exploit the desperate need for internet access. The fact that Africa accounts for only 1% of global data centre capacity is a staggering indictment of the region’s exclusion from the global digital economy.
But behind the façade of "growing the digital economy," investors are really after one thing: extracting profits from the vulnerable populations. And they’re willing to risk operational risks like unreliable power supply and dodgy infrastructure to get their claws on Africa’s technological pie.
The region’s "young and tech-savvy" population will be forced to sacrifice their precious bandwidth for the benefit of these corporate behemoths. The result will be a catastrophic widening of the digital divide, perpetuating the cycle of poverty and dependency that has plagued Africa for centuries.
As Africa Data Centres expands its Cape Town facility, we can only hope that the continent’s leaders will wake up to the dangers of corporate dominance and take bold action to reclaim the narrative of their own technological future.
