Africa’s cloud revolution may begin inside MTN’s $235M data centre
MTN’s new Lagos-based data centre brings cloud power home to Nigerian startups and firms.
Telecoms giant MTN has officially launched what it called West Africa’s largest Tier III data centre. It's a landmark development that's supposed to take MTN from a regular telecom company to a full-blown digital infrastructure.
Located in Lagos, Nigeria, the data center currently operates with 4.5 megawatts of power and is projected to scale up to 14 or even 20 megawatts, depending on demand. The total cost for both phases is about $235 million, with $20 million already spent on installing the cloud infrastructure that MTN claims rivals what Amazon, Microsoft, and Google offer globally.
That may sound ambitious, but MTN has put its weight behind this promise with self-orchestration capabilities. Businesses, developers, or creators can log in, configure, and manage their cloud storage or computing power remotely, much like they do on AWS or Azure, except that it’s all hosted locally in Nigeria.
Ogbonda Chivumnovu
For startups, SMEs, and even banks and oil companies, this capability opens up new possibilities. It is expected to tackle long waits and performance issues tied to data sitting in overseas servers. Everything should now live closer to home, which means faster speeds, lower latency, better reliability, and, arguably most crucially, data stored within Nigeria’s borders.
MTN Nigeria CEO, Karl Toriola explained that this push also guarantees compliance with regulatory standards from the NDPC and NITDA while shielding businesses from geopolitical risks often associated with hosting data abroad. Data privacy is key now, and this local hosting gives Nigerian or African developers some sort of quick access to remedies should this trust be breached.
But MTN isn’t doing the work alone. Nigeria’s Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr. Bosun Tijani, along with the Abia State government, have endorsed the data centre’s strategic value by signing up as clients.
We may also get the local currency pricing advantage too, something even the global rivals who accept naira don’t really offer in the same way. While MTN hasn’t disclosed exact figures on expected returns from this investment, it could be a long game.
With the Dabengwa Data Centre, MTN is laying the groundwork for Nigeria to become a self-sufficient, cloud-ready, AI-optimised digital hub.
