MTN Nigeria has launched the first phase of a $240 million data centre project, a major infrastructure milestone aimed at strengthening Nigeria’s digital backbone. Located in Ikeja, Lagos, the facility is named after the late Chief Executive Officer of MTN Group, Sifiso Dabengwa.
The new 9MW data centre will be developed in two phases, with Phase One comprising a 4.5MW Tier III data centre, built at a cost of $120 million. Of that sum, $100 million was spent on physical infrastructure, while $20 million was invested in cloud infrastructure. The unveiling of Phase One took place today, July 1, 2025.
Speaking to journalists at the launch, Chief Executive Officer of MTN Nigeria, Dr. Karl Toriola, described the facility as “Nigeria’s largest pre-fabricated modular data centre,” comprising 96 pre-fabricated containers and a rack capacity of approximately 1,500. The structure spans three floors and is fully modular in power and cooling systems.
Toriola explained that the project marks a pivotal moment for Nigeria’s tech sector. “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,” he said.
“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 stated.
Addressing the benefits of the data centre to Nigerian businesses, both large and small enterprises, Toriola said it would reduce the cost of doing business, since services would be paid for in Naira.
Toriola explained that the data centre will provide cost-effective solutions to businesses that will enable them to host their data locally, boost quality of service delivery, and comply with the NDPC’s policy on data sovereignty.
Further details on the cost aspect were provided by Lynda Saint-Nwafor, Chief Enterprise Business Officer at MTN Nigeria, who 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 stated that 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 added.
According to her, the MTN Cloud would be more accessible than services offered by global hyperscalers like Google Cloud, Amazon Web Services, and Microsoft Azure.
Also speaking at the event, Ifeanyi Otudor, Senior Consultant at MTN Enterprise Solutions, said the data centre is designed to accommodate high data traffic in the fintech sector and e-government platforms both now and in the future.
“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,” he said.
“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,” he added.
