Vodafone subsidiary Vodacom Mozambique is investing $25m in constructing a data center in Matola, Mozambique, according to a report from Opais.

The project will be carried out in three phases with the first phase set to be complete in July 2024.

The company says its data center, located in the capital Maputo, will focus on supporting advanced technology infrastructure with enhanced security measures and energy-efficient initiatives.

The data center will also be carrier-neutral. Specifications of the data center have not been shared.

The installation offers direct access to the 2Africa subsea cable, hosted in Vodacom Mozambique’s equipment room in Matola.

The company previously installed a modular data center in Matola in 2013.

The company laid the foundation stone for the construction of a Tier III-quality facility in October last year.

At the time, the company’s CEO, Lucas Chachine, told Further Africa: “The choice of the municipality of Matola for the installation of the enterprise is allied to the fact that it is an ideal location for disaster recovery operations and allows efficient access to local and global markets.”

He added that the facility will support the digital development of the national economy and will include ‘advanced cooling systems and redundant power supplies.’

In May 2023, Vodacom Mozambique launched commercial 5G services in Maputo with a plan to extend its 5G services to other parts of the country in upcoming years.

As of November last year, the operator reported serving more than 10 million customers in Mozambique.

Vodafone also operates under the Vodacom name in several other African markets, including Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Nigeria, and Safaricom in Kenya and Ethiopia.