Kenya's iXAfrica has secured financing for a 20MW expansion to a data center in Nairobi, the country’s capital.

South African lender Rand Merchant Bank (RMB) will offer a multi-tranche funding package of an unspecified amount to iXAfrica, which will be used to add 20MW to the existing NBOX1 facility.

The intended total capacity of NBOX1 is 22.5MW, but its current capacity is unclear. The press release announcing the closing of the funding round states that the first phase offers 2.25MW of capacity, but previous reporting and the company’s website state that this is instead 4.5MW.

The 17,300 sqm (186,215 sq ft) data center is located on Mombasa Road in Nairobi, employs adiabatic cooling, and offers 6,621 sqm (71,267 sq ft) of colocation space.

IXAfrica's Nairobi campus is on land that was formerly part of a Schneider Electric complex.

The data center campus has been in progress since 2021 and is backed by a $50m investment from Helios.

IXAfrica has also signed an agreement with real estate developer Tilsi Developments to purchase 11 acres for a second data center campus in Nairobi.

RMB is a division of FirstRand Bank Limited, an African corporate and investment bank. It has previously provided financing to WIOCC’s Open Access Data Centers and Cassava Technologies-owned Africa Data Centres.