By Stanley Onyeka, Lagos
MTN Nigeria, in a landmark collaboration with Dell Technologies, yesterday, officially launched the $150million Dabengwa Data Centre, a state-of-the-art facility poised to revolutionise enterprise IT infrastructure across West Africa with its comprehensive cloud services offering.
This strategic partnership delivers computing power, secure storage, and seamless cloud integration, empowering businesses to enhance operational efficiency, maintain regulatory compliance, and accelerate digital transformation within a trusted, locally hosted environment, the service provider said in a statement.
The Dabengwa Data Centre is reputed as West Africa’s largest prefabricated modular data centre in Nigeria, using 96 prefabricated containers for Phase-1, setting a new benchmark for technological advancement and infrastructure scale in the region.
The data centre incorporates AI-driven energy optimisation and robust hybrid cloud capabilities, ensuring unparalleled performance and flexibility for its clients.
Minister of Communications, Innovation & Digital Economy, ‘Bosun Tijani, was quoted as saying: “The MTN Data centre is part of the digital foundation of Nigeria’s modern economy that we seek – one that provides, and will continue to provide world class reliability, so that we can keep our money local. We don’t have to ship it out in dollars.”
Dr. Tijani, who described the data centre as “excellent.” thanked MTN for providing the platform that will help accelerate Nigeria’s critical sectors, from fintech, healthcare, education platforms, and artificial intelligence.
“Only through this kind of infrastructure can we truly enable sovereignty, trust, but also national productivity,” he added
Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, represented by the Secretary to the State Government, Abimbola Salu-Hundeyin, said: “Investments like this one that we’re here to launch offer a platform for our young people to be able to thrive. Enterprise-grade infrastructure on our own soil, giving start-ups, developers, and data creators the ability to build and scale from Nigeria to the world.
“With this facility, MTN is reinforcing Nigeria’s position as the digital backbone of West Africa.”
The Nigerian data centre market is said to be experiencing significant growth, with projections indicating an increase from 136.7 MW in 2025 to 279.4 MW by 2030, representing a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 15.37%.
This growth is further supported by substantial investments, with data centre operators committing over $630 million to expand capacity in Nigeria.
Executive Vice Chairman and CEO, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Aminu Maida, represented by Babagaba Digima, Deputy Director, New Media and Information Security Department, said: “Today marks a significant milestone in Nigeria’s digital sovereignty and technological independence. The infrastructure we celebrate here today embodies our collective vision of a digitally empowered Nigeria.”
Commending MTN, he reiterated that “The Commission remains committed to creating an environment that supports innovation while ensuring the highest standards of cybersecurity, data protection, and a robust internet infrastructure and service quality.”
The data centre is a significant leap in the data landscape to meet the increasing demand of Nigerian businesses for solutions that focus on growth and innovation.
Technological advancements
MTN Nigeria CEO, Dr. Karl Toriola, described the launch of the data centre and a new cloud platform as, “a representation of technological advancements that focuses on the development of a state-of-the-art commissioning and data-centric architecture in line with the direction and policy of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
He added that the $150 million data centre, “is a significant leap in the data landscape to meet the increasing demand of Nigerian businesses for solutions that focus on growth and innovation.”
Speaking on the data centre and MTN Cloud Accelerator for Africa, which was also unveiled to help Nigerian businesses, and boost the country’s digital ecosystem, Chief Enterprise Business Officer at MTN Nigeria, Lynda Saint-Nwafor, said the accelerator would empower the Nigeria tech-ecosystem for growth.
She added that the MTN Cloud Accelerator programme is tailored to support startups in the ecosystem with training and resources they need to thrive and can be accessed by local and global businesses.
The launch of the Dabengwa Data Centre is said to align with Nigeria’s strategic push for digital sovereignty and regulatory compliance.
The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), has finalised a data classification framework that encourages cloud service providers to establish local operations in Nigeria, mandating that certain categories of sensitive data, including health, financial, and government data, must be hosted within Nigeria.
The Dabengwa Data Centre therefore enables international cloud service providers to meet these critical regulatory requirements, fostering greater trust and security in Nigeria’s digital ecosystem, enhancing national security and attracting further investment in the country’s digital infrastructure.
