Google begins $1b Africa investment with cloud capability in Nigeria, South Africa

In line with its promise to invest $1billion in Nigeria and other parts of Africa, Google yesterday said it is expanding its network through the Equiano subsea cable and building dedicated cloud interconnect sites in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Lagos and Nairobi.

Director of Google Cloud Africa, Niral Patel, who announced the company’s intent to establish a new Google Cloud region in South Africa – its first on the continent, at the second Google for Africa event yesterday in Lagos, said it is the latest example of how Google is delivering on the $1billion investment commitment made last year by the company’s CEO, Sundar Pichai.

He said: “We believe in growing an open and healthy ecosystem of technology solutions to support Africa’s digital transformation goals which lead to more opportunities for businesses. It is part of our company-wide ethos to respect the environment, which is why we operate the cleanest cloud in the industry, supporting sustainable digital transformation. Along with the cloud region, we are expanding our network through the Equiano subsea cable and building Dedicated Cloud Interconnect sites in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Lagos, and Nairobi. In doing so, we are building full-scale Cloud capability for Africa.”

He said the new Cloud Region will help users, developers, businesses, and educational institutions across Africa to move more information and tools online, improve access options for customers, and in turn, create jobs. According to research by AlphaBeta Economics commissioned by Google Cloud, the South Africa cloud region will contribute more than a cumulative $2.1 billion to the country’s GDP and will support the creation of more than 40,000 jobs by 2030.

Google Cloud is working with customers across the continent – helping them solve business-critical challenges, get online, and access the benefits of digital technology. In South Africa, Google Cloud works with leading retailer TakeAlot to help their three million local customers enjoy a hassle-free online shopping experience. TakeAlot built its e-commerce platform on Google Cloud, which has enabled the business to avoid system crashes during high-traffic periods like Black Friday. While in Kenya, Google Cloud works with Twiga Foods – a technology-driven company addressing and improving food security in Africa – helps them connect 1,000 farmers to 140,000 vendors, delivering 12,000 orders every day and storing two million kilograms of fresh produce.”

Deputy Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies Philly Mapulane (South Africa): “Our National Development Plan 2030 calls for stimulating growth in the Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) sector and innovation by driving public and private ICT investment, especially in network upgrades and expansion. Google’s recent efforts in this regard have been particularly encouraging. The Equiano cable landed in Cape Town recently, and the improved speed and reduced internet costs that this can deliver has the potential to drive much fuller Internet participation for many more South Africans.”

Earlier this year, Google announced plans to open its first African product development centre in Nairobi to develop and build better products for Africans and the world.

Today, Google announced the launch of voice typing support for nine more African languages in Gboard, the Google keyboard (isiNdebele, isiXhosa, Kinyarwanda, Northern Sotho, Swati, Sesotho, Tswana, Tshivenda, and Xitsonga) – while 24 new languages are now supported on Google Translate, including Lingala, which is used by more than 45 million people across Central Africa.