Technology firm, MTN, has committed over $240 million to the construction of a new data centre in Nigeria.

Located in Ikeja, MTN said the 9MW data centre, named after late Chief Executive Officer, Sifiso Dabengwa, will be built in two phases. Phase One is a 4.5MW capacity Tier 3 data centre, costing about $120 million, including cloud infrastructure, which is to be unveiled today, July 1, 2025.

For emphasis, data centres play a critical role in digital economies, enabling the secure storage, processing, and management of data. They also help localise content from global platforms like Meta and Google, providing resilience against disruptions such as the major internet outage in West Africa earlier in 2024, caused by undersea cable breaks.

Speaking to journalists, the Chief Executive Officer of MTN Nigeria, Dr. Karl Toriola, said the centre would be Nigeria’s largest pre-fabricated modular data centre, with 96 pre-fabricated containers and a total rack capacity of about 1,500. It is fully modular in power and cooling and occupies three floors.

Toriola said the data centre would bring significant transformation to Nigeria’s technology ecosystem, since its services will be offered on a pay-as-you-use basis and priced in Naira.

“With the data centre launch, MTN is at the forefront of Nigeria’s digital space and ready to drive Artificial Intelligence (AI) needs across the country as we expand the capacity of the data centre facility.

“In addition, the data centre will enhance Nigeria’s data sovereignty and ensure that local data are hosted in Nigeria and protected from exposure and attacks.
“MTN is working closely with the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) to ensure compliance with data policy,” Toriola added.

On the advantages of the data centre to Nigerian businesses, both large and small enterprises, Toriola said it would reduce the cost of doing business, as services would be paid for in Naira.

According to him, the data centre will provide cost-effective solutions that enable businesses to host their data locally, boost quality of service delivery, and comply with NDPC’s policy on data sovereignty.

Providing further insight on the cost element, Chief Enterprise Business Officer, MTN Nigeria, Lynda Saint-Nwafor, said, “It cost MTN the sum of $100 million for the Phase 1 data centre infrastructure, with an additional $20 million for the cloud infrastructure.”

Saint-Nwafor said the data centre would reduce latency and enhance customer experience in data computing and storage, especially during the onboarding process.
“The MTN Data Centre will offer a self-orchestration data platform that allows users to log into the cloud service from any part of the world to develop solutions,” she stated.

She added that MTN Cloud would offer more accessible services than those provided by hyperscalers like Google, Amazon Web Services, and Microsoft Azure.

Senior Consultant, MTN Enterprise Solutions, Ifeanyi Otudor, explained that the data centre was built to support everything, from high data traffic in the fintech space to today’s and future e-government platforms.

“The data centre effectively puts MTN in a position to address the co-location needs of enterprise businesses and various organisations, including government entities, looking to offload that responsibility to experts like us.

“In addition, we also have about a 2.5 MB and a 3.15 MB transformer for the grid system, along with standby generators to power the data centre,” Otudor added.