Airtel Nigeria is scaling up its long-term bet on Nigeria’s digital economy with the development of a 38-megawatt hyperscale data centre in Lagos, a move aimed at strengthening data sovereignty, reducing reliance on offshore hosting, and positioning the country for accelerated growth in cloud computing and Artificial Intelligence (AI).
The telecoms operator reaffirmed this commitment during a high-level inspection tour of the Nxtra Data Centre under construction at Eko Atlantic, Lagos.
The visit was led by Dinesh Balsingh, Airtel Nigeria’s chief executive officer and Yashnath Issur, the chief executive officer of Nxtra by Airtel Africa, alongside Gabbi Massoud, the chairman of Eko Atlantic, executives of the project’s engineering partners and technology journalists.
The facility, which has passed a stringent design validation process and received construction approval from Eko Atlantic, is expected to be one of the largest data centre in Nigeria when completed.
With a planned load capacity of 38MW, the Lagos site is designed to support hyperscale and high-density environments for cloud service providers, content platforms, enterprises, and emerging technologies such as AI.
Issur said the site inspection marked a critical milestone in Airtel’s infrastructure roadmap, noting that the project is central to Nxtra’s ambition to bring global-standard digital infrastructure closer to African markets.
According to him, the data centre will deliver multi-megawatt capacity aligned with hyperscale demand, enabling cloud workloads to be hosted locally rather than abroad.
Read also: ‘Why Nigeria’s AI boom could become its biggest strategic risk’
“This data centre represents a critical part of our long-term vision for Nigeria’s digital ecosystem. We are putting the infrastructure in place to bring the cloud to Nigeria,” Issur said, adding that the investment is aimed at delivering reliable, secure, and world-class services for Nigeria and the wider continent.
Balsingh, in his remarks, said construction was progressing steadily towards the previously announced 2028 go-live date, stressing that Airtel’s focus remains on building a secure, energy-efficient, and future-ready facility that supports Africa’s digital transformation agenda.
Since its announcement, the project has been positioned as a strategic response to Nigeria’s growing demand for local data hosting, driven by increased digital services adoption, enterprise digitisation, fintech growth, and regulatory emphasis on data localisation.
By situating the facility close to major fibre routes and undersea cable landing stations, Airtel aims to reduce latency, improve service reliability, and expand access to high-quality digital services for businesses and consumers.
During the tour, stakeholders were guided through critical sections of the site, including piling zones where structural requirements have been tested. Technical teams outlined the data centre’s infrastructure design, security architecture, redundancy frameworks, and sustainability measures intended to ensure operational resilience and uptime at global standards.
Gabbi Massoud, Eko Atlantic chairman, said the inspection underscored the city’s ambition to host infrastructure of international relevance, describing the Nxtra facility as the type of long-term, technology-driven investment needed to support Nigeria’s evolving digital ecosystem and broader economic growth.
Beyond Lagos, Nxtra by Airtel is rolling out a continent-wide network of hyperscale and edge data centres, with additional facilities under development in Nairobi, Kenya, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The company has set a broader goal of building hyper-connected, state-of-the-art core and edge data centres in nearly 50 cities across Africa, positioning Airtel as a key infrastructure player in the continent’s cloud and data economy.
For Nigeria, the Lagos Nxtra Data Centre represents more than a construction milestone. It signals a strategic push to anchor data, cloud services, and emerging technologies locally, as competition intensifies to define the backbone of Africa’s digital future.
Join BusinessDay whatsapp Channel, to stay up to date
Open In Whatsapp
