Maser Group, a Dubai-based consumer electronics manufacturer, has announced a $1.6bn investment plan targeting farmland development and AI data centres in Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya over the next two years.
Founded in 2014, the privately owned company is repositioning itself to address Africa’s mounting food security pressures while tapping into surging demand for digital infrastructure fuelled by cloud services and artificial intelligence.
The group has already channelled roughly $300 million into land purchases and other asset-backed investments across the continent, its founder and chairman, Prateek Suri, disclosed.
Most of the capital for the expansion will be sourced through Maser’s investment subsidiary, MDR Investments LLC, in partnership with China-backed Chia Ventures Co. MDR oversees a $500 million fund and is actively exploring public–private collaborations with several African governments, including Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Rwanda and Nigeria, spanning agriculture, mining and affordable housing initiatives.
Suri also revealed that the company is in advanced discussions with firms in Taiwan to establish joint ventures aimed at developing data centre infrastructure in Africa, highlighting Maser’s growing focus on the continent’s digital economy.
The push comes as Africa’s food import costs climbed beyond $83 billion in 2023, data from the UN Economic Commission for Africa shows, reinforcing the need to expand domestic agricultural output.
Meanwhile, Africa’s data centre market is expected to expand significantly, with total capacity forecast to reach approximately 2.2 gigawatts by 2030, up from around 0.4 gigawatts currently. Achieving this growth will require about $20 billion in fresh investment, according to estimates by McKinsey & Co.
Maser Group presently has a footprint in Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, South Africa and Egypt, where it markets a range of home appliances such as televisions, washing machines and refrigerators.
Ownership of the company is led by Suri, who controls 56 percent, while Chia Ventures holds a 30 percent stake and TPA Electronics Co. owns the remaining 14 percent.
The latest expansion represents one of the boldest private-sector efforts to tackle Africa’s intertwined challenges of food supply resilience and digital infrastructure development.