Africa Finance Corporation and Vision International Investment Company signed a Shareholder Subscription Agreement with WIOCC Group in Riyadh on 1 September 2026. The two investors will inject a combined US$300 million into the platform. The signing took place at the LEAP 2026 Global Technology exhibition, which drew more than 1,000 investors representing over US$14 trillion in assets under management.
WIOCC is Africa’s leading carrier-neutral digital infrastructure platform. It operates in more than 30 African markets. Its assets span subsea cables, national and metro fibre routes, and hyperscale and edge data centres managed through group company Open Access Data Centres.
Why AFC and Vision Invest are backing WIOCC
AFC President and Chief Executive Samaila Zubairu frames fibre, data centres and subsea cables as essential infrastructure — on par with transport and energy. He argues that Africa must be connected, competitive and equipped to create value from the digital economy, not only consume it. That single line captures the strategic thesis behind this WIOCC investment.
Omar N. Al-Midani, President and Chief Executive of Vision Invest, points to Africa’s demographic momentum and rising digital demand. He sees the need for impactful capital in connectivity and digital ecosystems as the continent’s share of global population expands.
AFC has deployed more than US$19 billion across 36 African countries since 2007. Its portfolio covers energy, natural resources, heavy industry, transport and telecommunications. Vision Invest brings experience in strategic infrastructure partnerships from Saudi Arabia and internationally. Their combined backing adds long-term institutional capital to WIOCC’s shareholder base, which already includes IFC and African Capital Alliance.
What does the deal mean for Africa’s connectivity gap?
International Telecommunication Union data show that around 74% of the global population was online in 2025. By contrast, only about 36% of Africans used the internet in the same period. That gap signals both the scale of unmet demand and the need for higher-capacity infrastructure to carry cloud services and AI workloads.
AFC says the new capital will accelerate data centre deployment and consolidation, expand terrestrial fibre across African markets, and support selected investments in new subsea assets. Open Access Data Centres already runs core data centres and more than 30 edge facilities across Nigeria, South Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Additional fibre investments in Kenya tie into regional and subsea systems, bringing compute closer to users.
Saudi Arabia’s role as host for the deal announcement reflects the Kingdom’s wider ambition. Vision Invest’s backing of WIOCC from Riyadh fits an outward investment thesis that channels Gulf capital into African digital projects. This deal also reinforces a broader trend: carrier-neutral platforms with open-access fibre and data centre ecosystems are attracting larger, more strategic capital allocations across the continent.
As AI and data-intensive services spread into African markets, demand for resilient connectivity and local compute will intensify. Investors should watch how WIOCC deploys this US$300 million across fibre corridors, metro networks and data centres — and whether the platform uses its strengthened balance sheet to pursue further consolidation in key hubs from Lagos to Nairobi and Johannesburg.
Source: Furtherafrica