Unicloud unveils homegrown cloud infrastructure

Unicloud Africa, a regional cloud-computing firm, has launched what it calls a sovereign cloud and artificial intelligence network spanning six countries: Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Zambia, Senegal, and Mozambique.

The initiative was first unveiled at a media briefing in Lagos earlier this week and later detailed in a statement issued on Saturday. It is designed to help African governments and businesses maintain tighter control over their data, which has become an increasingly strategic resource.

Chief Executive Officer of Unicloud Africa, Ladi Okuneye, described the project as “a strategic shift towards Africa’s digital and financial independence.”

“For too long, African enterprises have been held back by the financial burden and compliance risks of offshore cloud platforms,” Okuneye said.

“We are providing world-class infrastructure backed by local currency billing, zero egress fees, and the assurance of ISO-certified, in-country data management. Unicloud Africa is the definitive foundation for Africa’s true digital and financial independence.”

Under the slogan “One Cloud, One Africa”, Unicloud’s expansion is built on a partnership with TouchNet, a homegrown technology provider that has helped build large-scale digital infrastructure across the continent.

Together, they aim to offer a service that blends regulatory compliance, cost predictability, and a degree of independence from the foreign tech giants that dominate Africa’s cloud market.

As more African economies digitalise, concerns over where data is stored and who has access to it are growing louder. By offering infrastructure tailored to local rules and connectivity constraints, Unicloud aims to position itself as a continental alternative to global incumbents such as Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure. Whether it can compete on scale and price, however, remains to be seen.

The newly launched platform provides African enterprises and governments with a world-class, highly certified, and financially optimised alternative to offshore cloud providers that often impose high costs and expose sensitive data to external jurisdictions.

Unicloud Africa’s platform addresses critical pain points facing African businesses, focusing on three key pillars: financial sovereignty and predictable costs; certified security and guaranteed resilience; and AI acceleration and technical leadership.

Under its financial sovereignty pillar, the company said it will enable local currency billing, eliminating foreign exchange volatility and hidden costs often associated with international cloud services. Clients will also enjoy zero data egress fees, allowing them to retrieve their data freely without additional charges, and benefit from a flexible, pay-per-use operational expenditure model that reduces upfront capital investments in IT infrastructure.

On the security front, Unicloud Africa’s infrastructure guarantees that all sensitive data, particularly in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and big data projects, will be hosted and processed entirely within each country. This ensures regulatory compliance for sectors such as finance, healthcare, and government operations.

The company also boasts a 99.999 per cent service-level agreement on storage, supported by dual active-active availability zones to ensure maximum uptime and business continuity. Its operations are certified under global standards, including ISO 27001 (Information Security Management) and ISO 22301 (Business Continuity Management).

Under its AI Acceleration programme, Unicloud Africa is providing GPU-as-a-Service, high-performance, GPU-enabled cloud servers available on demand. This service empowers businesses to deploy advanced AI models and large-scale data applications without the prohibitive infrastructure costs typically associated with such capabilities.

“By partnering with Unicloud Africa, TouchNet is directly accelerating Africa’s digital transformation,” Chief Executive Officer of TouchNet, Charly Bahous said.

“We are delivering secure, scalable, and locally optimised AI cloud infrastructure that empowers businesses and governments to modernise operations, drive innovation, and secure their data locally. This platform is a testament to our commitment to a connected and sovereign Africa.”

Similarly, Chief Executive Officer of Open Access Data Centres, Ayotunde Coker, commended the launch, noting that fully localised cloud infrastructure is critical to Africa’s economic growth and digital future.

“We firmly believe that fully localised cloud infrastructure is critical for economic growth and Africa’s digital future,” Coker said.

“This is why OADC is fully committed to collaborating with and providing all needed support to partners like Unicloud Africa, who are key to realising a truly unified African digital ecosystem.”

Unicloud Africa said its mission is to deliver secure, high-performance, and compliant cloud services tailored to the African context, offering governments and enterprises the tools they need to build resilient digital systems that respect local data sovereignty while fostering innovation and competitiveness.