The IJInvestor Award 2024 for Digital Infrastructure Acquisition of the Year in Africa was awarded to African Infrastructure Investment Managers’ (AIIM) investment in N+ONE, with judges saying it materially shifted forward the digital space in Africa.  

AIIM, through its AIIF4 fund, invested $90 million into a data centre partnership with N+ONE to support the build of 40MW data centre and cloud services platform.  

Morocco-based N+One is a leading African data centre owner and operator. The investment is aimed at supporting the roll-out of the cloud platform and construction across West Africa.  

The joint venture aspires to bridge Africa's current digital infrastructure gap and unlock the continent’s tremendous digital economy potential by providing world-class facilities and services to stimulate the expansion of local businesses and enable multinational companies to extend their African operations. 

N+ONE is aiming to become of Africa’s largest data centre and cloud providers. While the investment strengthens AIIM’s digital infrastructure portfolio and accelerates digitization across the continent. 

One judge said the transaction was very significant and materially shift along progress within Africa in the digital space.  

Digital infrastructure is one of AIIM’s core investment themes underpinned by material increases in data consumption, according to the submission. With Africa’s data centre demand expected to surpass 1GW by 2030, significant investment is required to realize the continent’s digital economy potential. 

Through this new joint platform, AIIM will contribute to bridging Africa’s digital infrastructure gap and facilitate local business growth through connectivity to international markets whilst supporting multinational companies in expanding their African operations. 

AIIM identified Morocco as a strategic investment destination due to its fast-growing data centre market. 

N+ONE’s market dominance, with more than 47% share of the Moroccan data centre colocation market, and its 15-year operational history, made it an ideal partner for AIIM. 

AIIM was one among several bidders in the process, which included both majority and minority investors. The final structure of the deal involved offering a minority acquisition, aligning both the sponsor’s and AIIM’s interests in the long-term growth strategy. An additional differentiator was AIIM’s extensive experience in infrastructure investment across Africa, particularly in the data centre sector, which includes its acquisition of Onix Data Centres in Accra, Ghana, a Tier IV data centre. 

AIIM was advised by: 

• Norton Rose Fulbright – legal  

N+ONE is advised by: 

• Torch Partners – financial