IFC, Proparco Invest $41M in WIOCC

International finance institution the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and private investment entity Proparco have committed a $41 million funding package to telecom company the West Indian Ocean Cable Company (WIOCC).

The funding will be used to develop data centers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria and South Africa while expanding the company’s terrestrial fiber optic networks.

“Truly neutral and open-access data centres are the cornerstone of a diversified digital ecosystem. Local data storage and processing capacity are also vital for the resilience of Africa’s digital network, as recent outages have demonstrated,”said Head of Energy, Digital and Infrastructure at Proparco Ariane Ducreux.

The funding package consists of a $21 million loan from the IFC along with a $20 million loan from Proparco. The WIOCC expects to sign an additional $10 million loan for its expansion in Nigeria with financial services company RMB in the coming weeks.