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Morocco Data Center Market – Late boomer yet catching up

February 20, 2023
Data-Center

1. Morocco is experiencing digital transformation and becoming industrial hub in Africa. There were 23.8 million active social media users and 26.5 million mobile internet users in Morocco in 2022

Google is the most commonly used search engine in Morocco in 20223

Social Media Users in Morocco, 20221

Internet Usage in Morocco, 20221

Operating System Market Share Morocco in 20223

Source: Interviews Conducted with Industry Experts in Morocco Data Center Market, Ken Research Analysis I 1. Data Reportal, Morocco | 2. Statista | 3. StatCounter

Morocco is witnessing the growth in adoption of digital services such as cloud, big data, and IoT, which are driving the demand for data centers in the region

Country Data Center Market Stage Competition Number of Data Centers, 2022 Major Regions

Morocco 		Growing Stage
CAGR (2022 – 2027F): ~8%		 Morocco 13 Casablanca, Fez

South Africa		 Growing Stage
CAGR (2022 – 2027F): ~11% 		South Africa 271 Johannesburg, Cape Town

Kenya		 Growing Stage
CAGR (2022 – 2027F): ~21% 		Kenya 8 Nairobi is a major hub followed by Mombasa

Egypt		 Growing Stage
CAGR (2022 – 2027F): ~16.4% 		Egypt 141 Cairo, Mansura

Nigeria		 Growing Stage
CAGR (2022 – 2027F): ~17% 		Nigeria 101 Lagos
Source: Interviews Conducted with Industry Experts in Morocco Data Center Market, Ken Research Analysis I 1. Data Center Map

2. Data center market in Morocco is in hesitators due to small market size and low growth rate in the year 2022

Data Center Market Attractiveness Result Matrix

Key Takeaways

  • Best-in-Class (For example, US, Germany and China)

    • Markets in this cluster are most attractive for data centers. Typically, high government support and advanced technology has already established a well-developed market.

  • High Potentials (For example, Canada, Japan, India, Nigeria, Egypt and Kenya)

    • In these markets, governments usually have plans to invest in data centers, also foreign players are expanding in the region.

  • Hesitators (For example, Morocco and South Africa)

    • Markets with a small market size and an expected low growth rate are defined as Hesitators primarily due to less number of data center facilities in the region.

  • Pensioners (None since data center is still in growing stage)

    • Pensioners are among the leaders in terms of data center market size and highly saturated with low growth.

3. Poor availability of electricity and lack of strong legal framework are few restraints in the market which is expected to be improve by increased government investment in IT sector

Country Key Players Challenges Growth Drivers

Morocco		 N+ONE Datacenters, Maroc Telecom and more

Security risks, lack sufficient knowledge about cloud services and location data

High penetration of digital technologies into the every-day-life of the people of the country, digital transformation in government and public sector.

South Africa		 Teraco, Africa Data Centers, Business Connexion (BCX), Open Access Data Center (OADC) and more.

Overly restrictive policy approach to data localization requirements

Insufficient protections for foreign data, which is not covered by POPIA.

Emerging trends in data storage and changing needs of customers due to the COVID-19 pandemic will only drive the growth of data centers in Africa

Kenya		 PAIX (Pan African IX Data Centers Kenya Ltd.), Safaricom, Telkom Kenya and more

The country is facing poor availability of electricity as the key problem in data center industry.

Increasing popularity of Fintech companies lead to more data consumption and drive the data center market.

In response, DC providers like MainOne are building additional storage capacity.

Egypt		 Raya Data Center, LINKdotNET and more

Issues in IT security and privacy, IT reliability and efficiency, and alignment between IT and business

The government invested in the IT infrastructure nationwide, and a large number of multinational companies were attracted to Egypt to offer a range of IT products and services.

Nigeria		 MDXi, Rack Center, MTN Data Center and more

Lack of adequate infrastructure and electricity

Lack of strong legal framework

Digital transformation in the country, with increase in demand for wholesale colocation services, especially from cloud service providers.

4. The growth story is still intact. The data center companies such as INWI have expansion plan to open two new data centers by the end of the year 2023

Upcoming Data Center Projects in Morocco

Key Takeaways

  • Helios Investment Partners has announced plans for acquisition of majority stakes in Maroc Datacenter (MDC).
  • The South African-based data storage company African Data Center plans to construct state-of-the-art “hyperscale data centers” in several African countries including Morocco. The “carrier-neutral co-location” data centers will be constructed over the next two years
  • INWI is planning to open two new datacenters by the end of the year 2023.
  • N+one data center has an option to deploy an additional 12,000 square meters in a relatively short time.
  • Maroc Telecom has potential plans to make another white space available (5,740 sq. ft.)
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Some of the Intelligence Curated by Ken Research in Data Center Space:
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