Telecoms giant MTN has announced a $240 million investment in a cutting-edge data centre in Lagos, as part of its push to support artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing, and Nigeria’s digital economy.
Located in Ikeja, the new facility—named in honour of the company’s late former CEO, Sifiso Dabengwa—is being developed in two phases. The first phase, a 4.5-megawatt Tier 3 modular data centre, is set to be unveiled today, July 1, 2025, and includes cloud infrastructure valued at $120 million.
MTN Nigeria’s Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Karl Toriola, told journalists the facility would be the country’s largest prefabricated modular data centre. It will feature 96 prefabricated containers across three floors, with a total rack capacity of approximately 1,500. The centre is fully modular in terms of power and cooling systems.
Toriola noted that the centre would provide a major boost to Nigeria’s technology ecosystem, offering scalable cloud and data services on a pay-as-you-use model, with pricing in Naira to ease access for local businesses.
“With this launch, MTN is positioning itself at the forefront of Nigeria’s digital transformation,” Toriola said. “The facility is designed to meet growing AI and cloud demands, while promoting data sovereignty by ensuring that Nigerian data is stored and protected locally.”
He emphasised MTN’s collaboration with the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) to ensure full compliance with national data policies and regulations.
Highlighting the impact on local businesses, Toriola said the data centre would reduce operating costs, especially for small and medium enterprises, by enabling affordable and reliable cloud services priced in local currency.
Chief Enterprise Business Officer at MTN Nigeria, Lynda Saint-Nwafor, further explained the cost breakdown: “We spent $100 million on building the Phase 1 data centre infrastructure and an additional $20 million on cloud infrastructure.”
She said the facility would significantly reduce latency and improve user experience for data storage, computing, and application deployment—particularly during onboarding.
“The MTN Data Centre will feature a self-orchestration platform that enables users to access cloud services globally and build digital solutions remotely,” Saint-Nwafor added.
She also noted that MTN’s cloud offerings would be more accessible and cost-efficient compared to global hyperscalers such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure.
Data centres are increasingly critical to modern digital economies. They support secure data processing and storage, enable local content hosting, and provide resilience against disruptions—such as the widespread internet outage in West Africa earlier in 2024 caused by undersea cable damage.
MTN’s investment is expected to help position Nigeria as a regional tech hub, while deepening digital infrastructure and supporting the country’s ambitions in AI, fintech, and enterprise technology.
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