Wingu Africa Becomes the First Tier III Certified Data Center in Ethiopia

Wingu Africa, a data center provider in Ethiopia, has achieved Tier III certification for its facility located in the ICT Park. This designation, awarded by Uptime Institute, the global authority on data center standards, makes Wingu Africa the first company in Ethiopia to have its data center infrastructure certified as Tier III.

Data center tiers are a standardized ranking system that reflects the reliability of a facility’s infrastructure. This classification ranges from Tier 1 (least reliable) to Tier 4 (most reliable).

“This significant investment underscores our commitment to bringing the highest quality digital infrastructure to Ethiopia and East Africa,” said Nicholas Lodge, Chief Strategic Officer at Wingu Africa Group Limited, in a press release.

While Uptime Institute has issued Tier Standard certifications in 114 countries, including 2645 awards globally, Wingu Africa is the only data center operator in Ethiopia to hold facility certification (as opposed to design certification held by Raxio Data Center, Zemen Bank, and Commercial Bank of Ethiopia).

Uptime Institute has awarded 2,645 certifications across 114 countries for their Tier Standard. In Ethiopia, Raxio Data Center, Zemen Bank, and Commercial Bank of Ethiopia hold Tier III certification for their data center designs. Meanwhile, Wingu Africa is the sole holder of certification for the facility.

According to the Institute, a Tier III certified facility ensures concurrent maintainability, where critical IT operations can continue uninterrupted even during planned maintenance or equipment upgrades, and fault tolerance, where the data center is designed to withstand unexpected failures such as power outages or cooling system malfunctions without impacting businesses that rely on it.

Established a decade ago, Wingu Africa Group Limited, a carrier-neutral data center group, operates facilities in four countries: Djibouti, Ethiopia, Somaliland, and Tanzania.

Built for 50 million dollars, Wingu Africa’s data center was inaugurated in 2023. The facility boasts a capacity of 800 racks with 10MW of power and offers secure power and fiber connectivity for customers requiring uninterrupted service. Ride-hailing Firm RIDE is one of the clients of Wingu Africa.