The Egyptian Ministry of Telecommunications and Information Technology and the Emirati Ministry of Investment signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to build large data centres, according to a Cabinet statement on Monday.

The signed document paves the way for building data facilities in Egypt with an initial capacity of 100 megawatts and a targeted capacity of 1,000 megawatts, said Egyptian Minister of Telecommunications Amr Talaat.

According to the data infrastructure intelligence website Dgtl Infra, a large data centre can require a power capacity of 100 megawatts. One megawatt equals 1,000 kilowatts of electricity.

Egypt is steadily building up its technological infrastructure and internet speed. The country recently climbed six places in global rankings for fixed broadband internet speeds, sitting at 77th place, with a speed of 64.53 megabytes per second as of November compared to a month prior, according to the Speedtest Global Index for internet performance metrics.

To enhance internet flexibility and speed in Egypt and Africa, Telecom Egypt, the country's main internet operator, recently signed an agreement with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to install and operate a Managed Root Server (IMRS) in the Egyptian company’s Regional Data Hub.

In October, Minister Talaat stated that Egypt allocated over $600 million towards the development of its submarine internet cable network.