NIGERIA has taken a definitive step toward digital sovereignty and curing foreign exchange leakages of over $850 million with the launch of the Kasi Cloud LOS1 Data Centre in Lagos, the single largest facility in West Africa.

Backed by the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA), the indigenous hyperscale facility aims to reverse a decades-long trend where Nigerian companies generate data locally but pay foreign vendors in scarce dollars to store and process it offshore.

Unveiled in Lagos on Tuesday, the State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, at the ceremony, said that the Kasi hyperscale AI-ready data centre will not only boost Nigeria’s economy in the area of digital transformation, but will also improve data connectivity and create employment for Nigerians.

Kasi Cloud LOS1 Data Centre is described as the single largest data centre in West Africa, designed to deliver AI-era performance, hyperscale capacity and intelligent connectivity for the world’s digital leaders.

SanwoOlu thanked the founders and financiers of the facility for bringing the vision of an AI-ready data centre to Nigeria.

“Our startups are built here in Nigeria, but they are all playing big abroad. Our businesses generate data here in Nigeria, but they process it elsewhere.

“Our digital economy creates value here in Nigeria, yet too much of that value lives on our shelves. That model may have survived in the early Internet era, but it will not sustain the economy that we see today, and Kasi hypercale AI-ready data centre will change that narrative to boost Nigeria’s economy, improve connectivity and create digital job opportunities,” Sanwo-Olu said.

According to him, Lagos is already commanding a substantial share of the nation’s fiscal capacity in terms of data centre infrastructure. “Connectivity lands here. Enterprise demands and innovation all live here, but we are not satisfied yet. The next phase of the global digital economy will be led by cities that deliberately build enabling infrastructure and scale. That’s why we need data infrastructure like the Kasi Cloud Data Centre that we are launching today,” Sanwo-Olu stressed.

He added that the data centre will answer most of Nigeria’s digital challenges, saying it will lower the cost of doing business and digitally improve connectivity and make Lagos a more competitive home for innovation and entrepreneurship.

The Minister of Finance and the Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr. Taiwo Oyedele, who co-chaired the launch ceremony, in his keynote address, said: “The nations and companies that control computing infrastructure are helping to shape the future architecture of the global economy. Nigeria, therefore, faces a strategic choice. We can remain consumers of digital intelligence, paying continuously in foreign exchange to assess AI capability posted abroad, or we can become producers, hosts, and builders of the infrastructure powering the next-generation economy. Today, we have chosen the launch of Kasi Cloud Hyperscale AI-ready Data Centres. This project represents far more than a physical facility. It is strategic. It’s a national infrastructure. It strengthens the foundation for innovation, expands opportunities for enterprise, enhances productivity across sectors, and positions Nigeria as a competitive player in an increasingly AI-driven world.”

Chief Executive Officer, NSIA, Aminu Umar-Sadiq, one of the financiers of Kasi Cloud, said: “Four years ago, NSIA defended, not on a building but on a thesis, that Nigeria could not credibly pursue digital transformation whilst exporting its data. That a country with over 200 million people, more than 110 million Internet users and two of the world’s most significant submarine cable landings, had no business sending some of its most valuable digital assets offshore for storage and processing.

“Today, that thesis stands before us, in concrete and steel. The classical hyperscale data centre is not just another facility; it is a statement of ambition, built on 4.2 hectares of plot in Lekki, Lagos. It represents Nigeria’s first indigenous hyperscale data centre and signals that the country is ready to host the next generation of cloud, Artificial Intelligence and high-density computing infrastructure on its own soil.”

Co-Founder and CEO, Kasi Cloud, Johnson Agogbua, said the world currently lives in a moment when Artificial Intelligence rewrites the rules of economic competition, hence the need to replicate a world-standard hypercale AI-ready data centre in Nigeria that would impact every industry like banking and healthcare. agriculture, education, and government, including manufacturing.