Visa Inc opened its first Visa data centre in Africa on Wednesday. Company officials said this was because the economy is growing quickly and more people are using digital payments.
Speaking at the launch, Michael Berner, Visa’s Head of Southern and East Africa, said the Visa data centre is part of a 1 billion rand ($57 million) investment in South Africa over the next three years.
“Visa continues to be very committed to the growth of the economy on the continent and building the data centre, which is frankly one of very few that are built outside of our core locations, which are the U.S., the UK and Singapore, is evidence of this commitment,” Berner said.
Visa claimed that the data centre in Johannesburg is a big step forward for VisaNet, the company’s worldwide processing network that handles more than 100 billion transactions a year in 200 countries and territories.
According to a 2025 study by Genesis Analytics for Mastercard, Africa’s digital payments market is projected to reach $1.5 trillion by 2030, driven by rising internet penetration and broader access to financial services.
Berner highlighted South Africa’s rapid adoption of digital payments, noting that over 60% of face-to-face payments are now contactless.
“When we look at South Africa, we really see it as a digital innovator and a digital leader on this continent. So having this data centre here can actually be a launch pad for solutions that we take across the continent,” Lineshree Moodley, country manager for Visa South Africa, said.
Moodley also told Reuters that the 1 billion rand initiative is part of Visa’s broader $1 billion Africa investment plan over five years, which was initially announced in 2022.
Communications Minister Solly Malatsi hailed the data centre as a vote of confidence in South Africa as an investment destination, adding it “reduces the reliance on overseas infrastructure and boosts our national financial sovereignty”.