WIOCC Appoints Mohammed Bouhelal To Lead DRC Operations

WIOCC Group, a provider of digital connectivity and infrastructure across Africa, has appointed connectivity and data services professional Mohammed Bouhelal to establish its presence in the DRC, a new market for the company.

WIOCC said Mohammed will work with major enterprises in DRC, particularly within the banking, insurance, and financial services sectors – as well as international and local carriers, cloud operators, content providers, fixed-line and mobile telcos, and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) – to help them take advantage of the wealth of opportunities presented by the country’s improving access to digital infrastructure and enhanced international connectivity.

WIOCC Group is building the DRC’s first open-access, carrier-neutral data centre, OADC Kinshasa, which will stimulate the county’s digital ecosystem and economy by delivering converged open digital infrastructure services, including tailored colocation and reliable connectivity, when it goes live later this year.

Located in Kinshasa, within TEXAF’s Silkin Village – one of the largest digital hubs in Central Africa – the 2MW-capable OADC Kinshasa is a partnership between transformational pan-African data centre operator, OADC, and TEXAF, a major long-term investor in the DRC’s economy.

As the first third-party colocation data centre in the country, OADC Kinshasa is a strategic foundation for digital infrastructure improvement in the DRC, which the World Bank reported was one of the most under-developed digital economies in Africa.

According to WIOCC Group, OADC Kinshasa will not only offer businesses a viable alternative to self-build and self-manage data centre facilities, with all the dedicated resource, expertise, management time and cost benefits that come with that, but also support the cloud infrastructure needs of a wide range of businesses and enterprises, enabling them to improve efficiency, expedite digitisation initiatives and more effectively service business and customer needs. Carriers too will benefit, because OADC Kinshasa offers them connectivity revenue opportunities and the opportunity to extend their service portfolios, by including a managed colocation service capability.

Within the open-access, carrier-neutral facility, WIOCC says it will create a unique and vibrant digital ecosystem – including international cloud operators, content providers, multiple carriers and ISPs – that will transform the country’s digital infrastructure ecosystem.

As the country’s first open access, carrier-neutral data centre, OADC Kinshasa is expected to be influential in stimulating the country’s internet penetration growth, which was only 17.4 per cent at the start of 2022, compared to 43 per cent for Africa as a whole and 68.6 per cent for the rest of the world.