Airtel Nigeria announced on Tuesday its ambitious plan to construct a 38-megawatt hyperscale data centre in Lagos, set to become the largest of its kind in Nigeria. The facility, located in the prestigious Eko Atlantic City, aims to address the soaring demand for cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) services in the region.
Eko Atlantic City, a high-end development built on land reclaimed from the Atlantic Ocean, has become a hub for major corporations, including First Bank of Nigeria, Dangote Group, and MTN Nigeria, which is relocating its national headquarters there. The strategic choice of this location underscores Airtel’s focus on security and reliable power, according to Ogo Ofomata, Director of Airtel Business. “It’s not just for flex; it’s about long-term infrastructure at scale,” Ofomata stated.
The data centre is designed to serve hyperscale cloud providers, large enterprises, and small businesses alike, supporting high-performance server racks of up to 6 kilowatts and next-generation compute workloads, including GPU-powered infrastructure critical for AI applications. “We’re building for high-performance workloads,” Ofomata added, emphasizing the facility’s readiness for both hyperscale operations and the needs of local SMEs.
Airtel Nigeria, which boasts over 50 million subscribers, has not disclosed the investment value or completion timeline but confirmed that development will commence in earnest next year. “The moment we launch the data centre, we will run it at scale. It’s a massive investment,” said Dinesh Balsingh, Chief Executive Officer of Airtel Nigeria, during a media session in Lagos. He highlighted the centre’s role in preparing Nigeria for the future, stating, “Data centres are not just for cloud; they are foundational to AI.”
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This project aligns with Airtel Africa’s broader infrastructure strategy across key markets and contributes to Nigeria’s growing digital infrastructure landscape. The country has attracted significant investments from global players such as Equinix, through its acquisition of MainOne, as well as Africa Data Centres, Rack Centre, Kasi Cloud, and MTN.
Nigeria’s data centre market is poised for rapid growth, with industry estimates projecting total capacity to increase from 136.7 megawatts in 2025 to 279.4 megawatts by 2030. Analysts predict the sector’s value will reach $671 million by the end of the decade, positioning Nigeria as Africa’s second-largest data centre market, trailing only South Africa.
