Amazon, an American multinational technology which focus on e-commerce, cloud computing, digital streaming and artificial intelligence, has announced plans to open its African headquarters in South Africa with a real estate investment of over $279 million (R4 billion).
Although Amazon has had its web engineering giant AWS in South Africa for years, its main e-commerce services remained unavailable on the continent.
The 15-hectare land is in a new development at River Club, a prime section of Cape Town and it includes two precincts. 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.
This new development will create at least 5,000 direct construction jobs and 19,000 indirect jobs in the country, drastically reducing the effect of Covid-19 on people
In a statement released by Cape Town city officials, the U.S. retail giant, Amazon, will be the anchor tenant, opening a base of operations on the African continent. The development is expected to happen in phases, with construction set to be concluded in three to five years.”
Minister for Trade, Dean Macpherson, says the project will also inject around R4 billion into the local economy.