Amazon to set up its African headquarters in South Africa
A week after Twitter announced it would be setting up its first African office in Ghana. US retail giant, Amazon has also announced it would be opening its first African headquarters in South Africa with a real estate investment of over $280million.
Authorities in Cape Town noted that Amazon would be occupying a new development in River Club, a prime section of the city. The development of the area will take place in phases, with construction to take place between three to five years. This new development will create 5,239 jobs in the construction phase alone. Along with 19,000 indirect and induced jobs.
Local authorities say the development will include both market-driven and affordable housing opportunities – the latter of which will be physically integrated with the other residential units in the apartment complexes.
The 15-hectare parcel of land will cost R4 billion ($280 million) and include two precincts. Authorities said the first precinct of 60,000sqm will occupy different layers of development; while the second section of 70,000 will hold Amazon headquarters in Africa.
Cape Town Mayor, Dan Plato noted that US retail giant, Amazon, will be the anchor tenant, opening a base of operations on the African continent.
“It is clear that this development offers many economic, social, and environmental benefits for the area. We are committed to driving investment to revitalize the economy, which is slowly recovering following the impact of Covid-19”
The city has carefully and thoroughly considered all of the submissions and concerns during the appeal process. We are acutely aware of the need to balance investment and job creation, along with heritage and planning considerations.”
It’s also worth mentioning that Amazon has already launched its data centers for Amazon Web Services (AWS) in Cape Town but until this announcement, it had no e-commerce office in Africa.
This news follows the recent announcement by Twitter to open its African office in Ghana, after snubbing Nigeria. The social media giant justified this move because Ghana was the host of AfCFTA and a promoter of free speech in the continent.