Unicloud Africa redefines cloud computing with local currency billing, AI-driven infrastructure

Unicloud Africa is reshaping the cloud computing landscape across the continent by launching a sovereign cloud platform that combines local currency billing with cutting-edge AI infrastructure, offering African enterprises and governments a cost-effective alternative to high-latency offshore providers.

The pan-African cloud platform, dedicated to advancing digital sovereignty, unveiled its enterprise-grade Sovereign Cloud and Artificial Intelligence infrastructure on Monday, in Lagos, making it immediately available in Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Zambia, Senegal, and Mozambique.

Powered by the mission of “One Cloud, One Africa,” the launch stems from a strategic partnership with TouchNet, a leading Africa technology services provider whose expertise ensures the platform’s robust, scalable foundation tailored to the continent’s unique needs.

Ladi Okuneye, Unicloud Africa CEO declared that the platform is the foundation for Africa’s true Digital and Financial Independence.

The initiative addresses longstanding challenges for African businesses, delivering world-class, highly certified, financially optimized, and fully compliant cloud services that eliminate the burdens of expensive offshore options. Central to this redefinition is the platform’s emphasis on financial sovereignty and predictable costs. Enterprises can now pay for services in their local currency, shielding them from foreign exchange volatility and unpredictable expenses.

Complementing this is the elimination of data egress fees, which guarantees no charges for retrieving data and enables straightforward, predictable monthly billing. The pay-per-use operational expenditure model further frees up capital by removing the need for heavy upfront investments in IT infrastructure.

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Security and resilience form another cornerstone, with sovereign data compliance ensuring all sensitive information, especially for AI, machine learning, and big data, is hosted and processed entirely in-country to meet regulatory demands in sectors like finance, healthcare, and government.

The architecture features two active-active availability zones and a contractual 99.999% service level agreement on storage, providing unmatched uptime for mission-critical workloads. Global certifications, including ISO 27001 for information security and ISO 22301 for business continuity, underscore the platform’s adherence to the highest standards of trust.

Driving innovation at its core is the AI acceleration capabilities, particularly through GPU-as-a-Service, which delivers high-performance, on-demand GPU-enabled cloud servers for running complex AI models and large-scale applications. This empowers use cases from real-time fraud detection in financial services to AI-driven analytics in medical research. Developer compatibility aligns with familiar features from leading global cloud environments, facilitating rapid adoption by local and international teams and democratizing access to the computing power needed for the next wave of continental innovation.

“A Strategic Shift for African Competitiveness”

“For too long, African enterprises have been held back by the financial burden and compliance risks of offshore cloud platforms. This is a strategic shift. We are providing world-class infrastructure, backed by local currency billing, zero egress fees, and the peace of mind of ISO-certified, in-country data management. Unicloud Africa is the definitive foundation for Africa’s true digital and financial independence,” Okuneye revealed.

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

Dr Ayotunde Coker, CEO of OADC, also added, ”We firmly believe that fully localised cloud infrastructure is critical for economic growth and Africa’s digital future. 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.”