Why Microsoft, AWS, others may never build data centres in Nigeria
Even as Nigeria's data centre market grows, hyperscalers like AWS and Microsoft may never invest. According to a data centre builder, the challenges to building in the country are immense.
The data centre capacity in Nigeria has been projected by several reports to grow significantly over the next few years. Estate Intel estimates that it will rise from 56.1 megawatts (MW) in 2025 to more than 218 MW by 2030.
Verraki, an African business solutions company, projects growth to 400 MW in its Opportunities in the Rising Data Centre Economy in Africa report, while data from Mordor Intelligence forecasts a rise to 279.4 MW.
Although the projections vary, there is a clear surge of interest in the data centre market, especially given the developments seen so far in 2025.
This year, MTN announced West Africa’s largest Tier III data centre, with an initial 4 MW capacity, and planned expansion to 14 MW. A few months later, Airtel revealed plans to build one eight times larger, with an IT load of 38 MW.
Equinix, which already operates two data centres in Nigeria — LG1 and LG2 —plans to build a third, LG3, by Q1 2026. The company, which has 270 data centres globally, says $22 million will be invested in the first phase of LG3.
Despite these promising developments in Nigeria’s data centre market, the country remains a challenging environment in which to build such facilities.
In a conversation with Techpoint Africa, Ranjit Gajare, Chief Growth Officer at Sterling and Wilson Data Centre (SWDC), explains why Nigeria is a strong candidate for data centre investment and the obstacles that may still deter investors.
Related Story: Nigeria’s telecom regulator greenlights MTN and 9Mobile’s three-year roaming deal
Data centre investment is growing, but hyperscalers are not interested yet
SWDC has built data centres for hyperscalers such as Microsoft and AWS across the Middle East, India, and Africa. According to Gajare, digitisation remains one of Africa’s biggest drivers of data centre demand.
From enterprises moving workloads to the cloud to governments digitising health, education, and citizen services, the volume of data generated has surged.
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