In Côte d'Ivoire, the battle for digital sovereignty is entering a new phase. ST Digital, a young company positioning itself as a reference player in African cloud, will soon inaugurate its very first data centre in Côte d'Ivoire, located in the VITIB zone of Grand-Bassam. A strategic Tier III infrastructure, conceived as the first building block of a sovereign cloud ecosystem in French-speaking Africa.
This is the concept of digital sovereignty, and it is the raison d'être of ST Digital. The company's mission is to advocate for a genuine paradigm shift, by developing local infrastructure to guarantee true digital autonomy and prevent Africa from becoming dependent on foreign services.
This opening will complement ST Digital's DataCenter Infrastructure footprint in Africa, following Cameroun and preceding Gabon. As a reminder, ST Digital's projected network coverage is represented as follows:
A flagship project for an emerging market
Announced for the last quarter of 2025, the inauguration of the ST Digital data centre is presented as a strategic turning point for French-speaking Africa. A "turning point" that the group's founder, Anthony Same, envisions on a continental scale. "This is not merely about importing a technology, but about designing an infrastructure adapted to the realities of our markets, with our own human resources and our own standards," explains Steve Tchouaga, General Manager of the Ivorian subsidiary.
The ambition is clear: to provide a sovereign infrastructure, interconnected with other planned centres in Cameroun, Gabon, Togo, Guinea and Senegal, capable of meeting growing needs in cloud, AI and cybersecurity. On paper, the objective is aligned with the recommendations of the World Bank, which estimated in 2023 that "Africa has only 1% of the world's data centre capacity, compared to 53% for North America."
An Africa lacking infrastructure but over-connected
As demand surges — Internet traffic in Africa is expected to increase sixfold by 2030 — solutions remain scarce and costly. In 2024, the African data centre market was worth barely 3.5 billion dollars, representing less than 1% of the global market estimated at 386 billion USD.
African businesses are therefore often compelled to host their data in Frankfurt, Paris, or Dubai. A paradox for a continent that boasts one of the most dynamic digital growth rates in the world (+40% per year in mobile data).
According to forecasts, the installed energy capacity of African data centers will grow from 780 MW in 2025 to more than 1,400 MW by 2030, representing an annual growth rate of over 12%.
Hosting African data… in Africa, a sovereign bet… but swimming against the tide?
The promise is attractive, but the reality remains far more challenging. In the data centre world, the race for volume is paramount.
"Sovereignty requires security, but also performance. We must prove that African data centers can be as robust as those of major platforms," summarizes Stéphane Chapperon, expert at Grant Thornton, who spoke in early June at a private dinner organized by ST Digital on the sidelines of the Africa CEO Forum. A confidential yet strategic dinner, bringing together around thirty public and private decision-makers around the theme: "African Cloud: innovation, sovereignty and competitiveness." An opportunity for ST Digital to test its vision with its future partners — and to mark its territory.
With this data center, the group aims to address a dual urgency: reducing dependence on foreign platforms (AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud) while reassuring local institutions and businesses regarding the integrity, availability, and jurisdiction of their critical data. The challenge goes beyond simple technical hosting, it is noted: it touches on the continent's capacity to control its data flows, build local economic models, and train the talent that will carry this new digital architecture forward.
In this context, ST Digital positions itself with a proximity-based sovereignty model, designed for African public administrations and SMEs with an agile approach: modular infrastructure, optimised energy consumption, and services tailored to local SMEs. "We are not seeking to replicate the giants, but to foster an African model — hybrid, frugal, and endogenous," explains Steve Tchouaga.
A public-private alliance that is becoming necessary
On the institutional side, the signal is well received. Florence Fadika, adviser to the Ministry of Digital Transition, notes that "the State cannot bear digital sovereignty alone: the private sector must support this movement". The Ivorian government has just completed its national strategy on artificial intelligence and data, with an emphasis on standardising management practices, upskilling local stakeholders, and which notably provides for the introduction of tax incentives for local hosting.
A public-private alignment that is becoming a necessity. "We need a complete ecosystem: schools, researchers, businesses. Otherwise, we will remain consumers of models designed elsewhere, for other realities," warns Roger Adom, former Ivorian Minister of Digital Affairs and Special Advisor to the Prime Minister's Office on digital economy issues.
But a favorable framework does not guarantee demand. "The real question is monetization," warns an industry expert. "How many public institutions or startups can, today, afford colocation or custom GPUs?"
A Pan-African group with international standards
The future datacenter is shaping up to be a turning point. ST Digital's ambition is to make this infrastructure a driver of local innovation, not merely a hosting centre, our expert explains. "To achieve this, ST Digital will need to demonstrate its ability to attract AI developers, host critical private and public services, and compete with the offerings of Google or Oracle, which are already active in sub-Saharan Africa."
Furthermore, the ST Digital project incorporates an eco-responsible dimension. "Unlike many foreign players who favour traditional energy practices, ST Digital integrates energy solutions, ensuring optimised and sustainable resource management for each project", explains Steve Tchouaga. "We make energy transition a priority, with innovative technologies that reduce the ecological footprint of projects while guaranteeing optimal data performance. This commitment reflects not only our mission of digital sovereignty, but also our responsibility towards a sustainable future for Africa and the world.".
For ST Digital, the credo is simple: Sky is not your limit… Your mind is.".