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The Konza National Data Centre, which hosts systems for ministries, county governments and private firms, is running at or near full capacity, and the government has now taken a formal step towards bringing in a private company to finance and run its expansion.
The Public Private Partnerships (PPP) Directorate at the National Treasury signed a funding agreement with the Konza Technopolis Development Authority (KoTDA) on Friday, October 23, to pay for preparatory work on the Konza National Data Centre Cloud Expansion and Smart City Facilities Project. PPP Director General Kefa Seda hosted KoTDA chief executive John Paul Okwiri for the signing.
The money will be used to hire a transaction adviser, who will structure the deal for the market and lead the search for a private partner. The agreement does not mean construction has started or that an investor has been picked.
Why the expansion is needed
The government started building the Tier III data centre at Konza in 2019 and finished it in 2021. It holds the Uptime Institute Tier III design and construction certification and offers cloud hosting, software and platform services, colocation and secure networking to government agencies and private clients.
According to the Treasury’s tender documents for the adviser, the facility is now operating at or near full capacity. That limits its ability to take on more ministries, counties and businesses at a time when the Kenya Cloud Policy of 2024 requires a cloud-first approach for public sector ICT systems.
A feasibility study that KoTDA completed in November 2025 found strong demand for local, secure cloud services. It pointed to the digitisation of government services, the National Artificial Intelligence Strategy (2025 to 2030), the growth of fintech and e-commerce, and the Data Protection Act of 2019, which pushes organisations to host certain data locally. The project entered the PPP pipeline in December 2025.
What the private partner would do
Under the proposed model, the private partner would finance, upgrade, expand, operate and maintain the existing data centre and related digital infrastructure, and carry the performance and operating risks. Ownership of the core infrastructure would stay with KoTDA for the length of the concession, which has not yet been set.
The planned work includes more rack space, computing power, storage and cloud capacity inside the existing building; upgraded power and cooling systems; stronger cybersecurity tools; and links to Konza’s smart city fibre network and operations centre. The operator would earn money from colocation, managed cloud services, disaster recovery and hosting digital platforms. The Treasury also wants the adviser to look at ways for local investors to put money into the project.
The adviser’s job runs from reviewing the feasibility study and building a financial model, to drafting the tender papers and PPP agreement, to supporting talks with the preferred bidder until financial close. The tender for the role was issued on March 16, 2026, and closed in April.
What it means for businesses
For companies that sell cloud, cybersecurity, power and cooling services, the deal opens a new route to large government contracts, much like the toll road concessions the Treasury is lining up and the Mombasa and Lamu port deals. Firms hoping to bid for work linked to the project will need to be on the government’s procurement system; our guide explains how to register on eGP Kenya as a supplier.
The expansion also comes as digital risks rise. The Communications Authority recently reported 2.7 billion cyber threat events in three months, which adds weight to the government’s push to keep more public data on secure local servers. Konza is also the planned site of a KSh80bn nuclear research reactor.
No cost estimate for the data centre expansion has been made public. That figure, along with the length of the concession and any government support, is expected once the adviser completes the structuring work.
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