STATEMENT BY THE CITY'S MAYORAL COMMITTEE MEMBER FOR ECONOMIC GROWTH, ALDERMAN JAMES VOS

This week, I had the honour of joining the team at Africa Data Centres for the sod-turning ceremony of their new Cape Town facility.

The data centre is the second in the metro from the business, which is owned by Cassava Technologies, a pan-African tech group.

This new facility, together with the upgrade of the existing hub, means the company's total investment into infrastructure in Cape Town over the next two to three years will be in excess of R1,5 billion while creating around 500 jobs.

It gives me pleasure to confirm that the Investment Facilitation Branch in the Economic Growth Directorate supported the company's development in the metro through the implementation of its incentives programme, which is aimed at helping businesses to land and expand in Cape Town.

This investment is yet another endorsement of Cape Town as a continental tech capital. Last year, the Global Financial Centres Index officially ranked the Mother City as the top spot in Africa for Fintech investments.

The metro has earned this reputation because of the City's partnerships with high-growth industry organisations such as the Cape Innovation and Technology Initiative (CiTi) which has supported thousands of local entrepreneurs.

The City also funds training for young Capetonians looking to get a foot in the digital door. Last year, I had the distinct pleasure to officiate at the graduation ceremony of 200 previously unemployed young people from the CapaCiTi Digital Career Accelerator with ICT skills such as software development.

As a City government, we have worked hard to forge a strong foundation for economic development and investment and are constantly working to make life easier for businesses and in 2023, we will continue forging ahead with these goals.

Source: City Of Cape Town