Siscom Technology and Navon World have announced a landmark partnership poised to revolutionize Africa’s digital infrastructure by bringing AI-ready modular data centers to the continent.
This alliance, unveiled on July 23, 2025, represents a bold step toward democratizing access to advanced computing infrastructure and empowering Africans to actively participate in the rapidly expanding digital economy.
Their collaboration centers on the co-development and deployment of cutting-edge distributed infrastructure that specifically supports AI workloads. At the heart of the initiative are AI-optimized GPU clusters housed within modular data centers designed and built by Navon World, a recognized innovator in modular, AI-ready, and high-performance computing (HPC) solutions.
These data centers will serve as the foundational pillars for enhanced compute capacity in Africa, designed to be rapidly deployable and highly scalable.
Strategically, Navon World is establishing its first African campus within the Naivasha Special Economic Zone (SEZ), a deliberate choice to decentralize access beyond Nairobi, East Africa’s traditional digital hub.
“Naivasha SEZ is shaping up to become a critical availability zone, expanding access to infrastructure beyond Nairobi, where most large-scale data centers are currently concentrated,” a Siscom spokesperson noted. This dispersion is expected to alleviate regional concentration risks and stimulate technological growth in emerging tech corridors.
The partnership aims to accelerate the deployment of GPU clusters to fuel Africa’s burgeoning AI and cloud economies, facilitate the construction of modular and right-sized data centers that can be operational in months rather than years, attract diverse investment from small to mid-sized private investors, and build sovereign compute capacity scattered across high-impact regional zones.
Derrick Gakuu, Head of Innovation at Siscom Technology, articulated the transformative vision underpinning the alliance. “We’ve been keen on this partnership because it brings something worth building around – modular, distributed, AI & HPC-ready infrastructure. For the first time, our investors don’t just back innovation – they own the vertical. From cluster to cloud, we’re making real infrastructure accessible, investable, and co-owned by Africans.”
Romi Sumaria, CEO of Navon World, shared this ambition, emphasizing the synergy of their combined capabilities. “With Siscom’s ability to aggregate capital and demand, and our track record in designing and deploying modular AI-ready data centers, this partnership helps us move faster – with the right infrastructure, in the right places, for the right people.”
As Navon advances work on its flagship Naivasha campus and plans distributed clusters across the region, Siscom is preparing its DI² investor community to engage in infrastructure ownership.
This innovative investment model redefines the typical African tech investment paradigm, moving beyond applications and startups toward the foundational physical infrastructure – “building the socket,” rather than merely “plugging in.”
In essence, the Siscom-Navon alliance offers a vivid blueprint for Africa’s infrastructure future: agile, localized, and collaborative, with technology and ownership deeply rooted in the continent.
By combining rapid deployment of modular data centers with AI-enabled high-performance computing, they are charting a course for Africa to claim its stake in the global digital economy, not as a mere consumer but as an active, empowered participant.
This strategic partnership not only advances the continent’s compute capabilities but also embodies a broader message: Africa no longer needs to wait for outside solutions; it is ready to build its own digital backbone – boldly, modestly, locally.
