 Welcome back to JSA TV and JSA podcast where we're covering the latest stories trends and innovations from leaders across the digital Infrastructure industry. I am Keeley Dorian here at PTC and I am joined now by Niraj Shah with IAX to Africa winning the award I might say for dedication as you've had some insane flight delays But we're so happy that you're here and you made it. Thanks. Thanks. Keeley. It's yeah It's been it's been actually very very difficult to get you where was fine I mean you're 36 hours flying flight cancellations, but I'm here It's the dedication and yeah, you know, it's the conference to be at. It is the conference to be at You definitely don't want to miss it and we're so happy to have you joining us once again on JSA TV Well for for those who don't know do you want to just give us a quick overview of IAX Africa? Of course doing a lot of with In East Africa when it well, you'll describe it better than me. So I'll let you go. Thanks So we've gained a lot of momentum, you know, we started about two years ago and we had the first Campus built for the first building for the first campus, which is four and a half megawatts of it power Which is now live, but we intend going to 22 and a half megawatts We are actually the first hyperscale data center in eastern Central Africa And we've actually set the trend now quite a few of the competitions now looking at, you know Getting that traction together and building so but we're we're a couple of years ahead We're actually going to the next step of getting a second campus done Which is about 30 kilometers away from where we are which kind of suits what the hyperscalers would like in terms of redundancy So, yeah, we're we're actually quite happy with the progress we've made and Now that we are live with a lots lots and lots of connectivity providers come again IXPs have come in we brought in links Nairobi into Nairobi Call links Nairobi and now links will obviously spread their wings as well amongst Kenyan data centers But you know clearly we are the guys who brought them in and they're doing a lot with us And obviously it's going to really boost the whole connectivity hub element of Kenya So yeah, that is the plan and we're forging ahead. Yeah doing such great work and in a big market That's coming on to the scene. So let's talk about sustainability I know that is a very key pillar for you as you continue to grow the company Absolutely, and one of the benefits and I think I mentioned a couple of times that Kenya is actually very green It's actually 93% renewable energy, but the beauty of it is it's actually hydroelectric and Geothermal as well as wind and solace. It's actually got all elements coming in now and the wind is taking a very very big factor as well So when one of the key requirements when we talk to the hypers is how sustainable are you? So our entire data center is powered by renewable energy and the fact that we also have this keep it Africa Theme that we go with we make sure that we are not really spreading our carbon footprint in a big way So everything's locally Rick, you know, we try and get everything locally as much as we can We make sure we have the companies that support us that they have their agencies in Kenya itself Or in the region to make sure that there is no downtime from them. So very strict on how we're doing all of this Yeah, so let's talk about you mentioned some growth plans already with looking at a second campus And we're talking about sustainability. So as you continue to grow, of course data centers need a lot of power Which is not always as sustainable as we would like it to be So how are you looking at that growth and how do you plan to continue to be sustainable as you grow? Yeah, so there are a couple of things that are happening in Kenya particularly is the fact that it's renewable no doubt 93% but there's a lot of Incentive to actually generate your own power as you go along at some point They will do wheeling where you will be able to actually Sell your power. That's more than that you may require onto the grid So so there's obviously one element that a lot of the companies would look at It's a lot more in the manufacturing side of the sector, right? But from a data-setting perspective for 22 and a half megawatts. We need a lot of power So there are ways and means of how we will actually try and minimize what we would use by say solar in terms of our Administrative use right a megawatt or two megawatts, but as we go to twenty two and a half. No doubt. We're we're actually Gonna be using the the grid power which is renewable But there are lots of other innovations that are coming in now There's biodiesel that you can use for your redundancy generators But you can also there is a now a movement to actually start generating green hydrogen So that's still like in the making, but it's a big possibility. What you need for that is a lot of hydroelectric So more rivers more water is required and it's generated through it's I mean in a basic way It's a lot of electrolysis that you that you'd use to generate green hydrogen. So In essence Kenya's got a lot of potential to generate different renewable energy And that's where we're gonna try and tap into all of this and then perhaps as time goes by with the land That we have acquired we've acquired more land Further furthest I think it's further north actually from where we are and that's 11 acres Which also has the possibility of wind and also, you know generating at a small level hydroelectric So yeah, you know We're looking at sustainability and power in a big way that is the name of the game Which is the other thing that you know when you get into AI there's a huge demand for power Right and you want that power to be green So we're already gearing up towards that in what whatever we're doing. So, you know We're a couple years ahead of what we want to what we will probably see happening So we're already planning for that. Yeah, a lot of exciting things to come It sounds like so definitely not slowing down any time soon. It'll refer it. I ex-Africa Is there anything else that you want our viewers to know about? Oh, yeah, well, yeah You know we're based out of Nairobi in Kenya, which is the capital city and it's actually a market You mentioned that but Kenya well Nairobi serves up to 400 million people in different countries from the East African side So it's a huge. It's a massive market. I think now with a hyper cloud Coming in they're looking at these markets. So Yeah, we're ready and I think they've come in without a couple of hypers come in and have a look at what we have and They're well impressed with what we built especially to see something that big that developed in Kenya Mostly they're all small data centers. So so yeah, we're ready and come on in it's exciting stuff Well, thank you so much for stopping by JSA TV during your brief time here at PTC I hope you get to enjoy the rest of the show and have a really productive meeting that meeting schedule ahead. Yeah Yeah, thanks. Thanks, Keely. It was great to be here. Thank you. Thank you again for joining us And thanks to our viewers for tuning in stay connected