Africa needs 700 data centres by 2035 to power digital trade under AfCFTA

Africa needs more than 500 additional data centres over the next nine years if it is to attain sovereignty and build a competitive digital trade economy, according to the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat.

Speaking in Lagos at the AfCFTA Digital Trade Forum, Wamkele Mene, secretary-general of the secretariat said this is part of required investment in digital infrastructure to supports cross-border electronic commerce under the 8-year old unifying agreement.

“Our studies indicate that our continent, by the end of 2035, will require over 700 data centres to enable us to process our own data, manufacture our own data and to manage our own data,” Mene said.

Research data released by Aritzon advisory and intelligence, a think tank in March 2026 reported that there are currently 132 existing data centres and 57 upcoming across 14 regions on yhe continent.

Their findings further showed that South Africa and Nigeria dominate the market, collectively contributing almost 80 percent of the region’s operational capacity.

The mathematics leaves the continent up to 500 centres short of what it needs.

The secretary added that the expansion of data centre capacity would be central to unlocking Africa’s growing digital economy, which the secretariat reported is currently valued at about $180 billion and projected to exceed $700 billion by 2050.

Mene said building to meet up with European and American markets with thousands more centres is the “most immediate opportunity in our economy.”

“In Africa, we have 900 million smartphone users by the year 2022, double the number of the United States and Europe combined. By the year 2022, 40 percent of the world’s youth will be here in our continent. We must harness this dividend,” he said.

Datacentres.com, another agency tracking the number of such facilities in the continent, identified 18 data centres in three states across five cities in Nigeria primarily run by 12 private providers.

“Here in Nigeria, for example, many of the data centres, are private sector investments with the support of government,” Mene told BusinessDay, calling for greater federal investment in the infrastructure that will keep them running.

“We need governments to invest in power generation, because as you know, these data centres consume a lot of power. So it has to be both public and private sector. This is the best way to go” he said.

Read also: How tech-savvy Nigerian youths are driving Africa’s digital trade

The AfCFTA secretariat’s findings mixes with stakeholder perception of the role of Artificial Intelligence in powering digital trade solutions particular to Africa, including language diversity.

“We’re a continent of over 2,000 languages. The versatility of that is great but it does portend some disadvantages as well and we think that is an area that artificial intelligence can help” said Olumide Balogun, head of Google, East and West Africa.

“We want open datasets that help someone who speaks Swahili talk to someone who speaks Igbo without having to learn the language.”

Data centres have been described as factories of the digital economy as they house the specialised hardware and computing power needed to train and operate advanced AI models.

Jumoke Oduwole, minister of trade and investment in Nigeria, one of the continent’s entitled digital trade champions, pointed out that Africa houses the mineral resources that serve as foundational hardware, and energy infrastructure required to train and operate AI models.

The minister said the continent must harness it, assuring investors in the sector of profitability and sustainability on policies.

Yet, the collective environmental footprint of data centres remains substantial. A medium-sized data center can consume up to roughly 110 million gallons of water per year for cooling purposes, equivalent to the annual water usage of approximately 1,000 households, according to findings by the Environmental and Energy Study Institute.

“Larger data centers can each “drink” up to five million gallons per day, or about 1.8 billion annually, usage equivalent to a town of 10,000 to 50,000 people.”

The AfCFTA secretary described this as a problem that must be solved by state authorities. “That has to be solved at national level. We won’t be able to solve that problem today.” Mene said.

“Governments are developing investment strategies to attract investors, particularly in digital technology. They have to consider power and other resources like water that are required for that investment strategy to bring in big tech,” he added.