• Thursday, May 09, 2024
businessday logo

BusinessDay

Airtel plans Africa’s largest data centre in Nigeria

Airtel subscribers experience 50 m drop calls daily due to lack of credit

Segun Ogunsanya, the chief executive officer of Airtel Africa, on Wednesday, said the company has concluded plans to roll out Africa’s biggest data centre in Nigeria.

Ogunsanya, while fielding questions from State House journalists after a meeting with President Bola Tinubu at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, said the centre will provide services for all multinationals in Nigeria.

Ogunsanya said the company operations suffered negative effects of the current foreign exchange challenges, but assured that plans were on to overcome the challenges “We’re always expanding our business we always invest in the country. We’re going to set up a new data centre in the country. “We have already bought the land and we will be breaking ground very soon. It is going to be one of the largest data centres in Africa that we’re going to put in Nigeria.

“We had massive issues with liquidity FX we still have some issues with FX liquidity, but at least slightly more predictable than it was a couple of months ago. It makes it easier for us to do better planning.

“We’re not out of the woods yet, but we can see light at the end of the tunnel He stated that the data centre will be one of the largest data centres in Africa, adding that ” It is going to serve all the multinationals in the country. So it’s going to serve some of the Foreign countries, certainly, it is going to be one of the largest in Africa.

“Though Airtel is yet to do final budgeting we’ve got the land, we’ve got the consultants, and we’re going to break ground very soon

“As you would have seen in the media, I am about to retire from major service in another six months and I came to share the news with His Excellency to say that in another six months, I will be retiring from Airtel Africa. He urged Nigerians to be patient with the new administration, adding that the “President said Nigerians should expect the best from this government.