Nigeria’s biggest data services firm, MainOne Cable Co., plans to almost double storage capacity over the next two years after demand for its services increased in West Africa.

The Lagos-based company, which provides undersea cable and broadband connectivity, will increase the capacity of data centers to about 900 racks next year from 714 racks currently and add additional 300 racks by 2023 if demand is sustained, Emmanuel Kwarteng, country manager for Ghana said in an interview.

It is building a 130-rack facility in Lagos that will be completed this year, and plans to add a 50-rack center in Cote de’Ivoire in 2022 and expand a 104-rack Ghana facility to 400 racks by 2023, he said.

“We see the data center market growing a lot in Ghana and Nigeria, with demand from financial institutions, manufacturers, oil and gas companies and enterprises,” Kwarteng said. Demand in Ghana is being driven by institutions seeking to comply with government requirements to store their data locally, as well as in primary and back-up facilities, according to the country head.

Big companies in Nigeria are taking up additional storage capacity as they grow while small businesses pushed to work from home by Covid-19 need to store their data in certified facilities, he said.

MainOne has built terrestrial fiber and interconnection facilities in about 10 West African countries, according to information on its website.

The company is looking to extend services to more countries including Liberia over the next three years to deepen infrastructure in the region, Kwarteng said.