MTN Nigeria today, July 1, 2025, launched what it describes as West Africa’s largest Tier III data centre—and one of the largest in Africa.
Named the Sifiso Dabengwa Data Centre, the facility has a capacity of nine megawatts and is equipped with cloud infrastructure that the telco claims rivals offerings from Amazon, Microsoft, and Google.
The company has launched the first phase of the data centre, which delivers 4.5 megawatts of capacity. The second phase will be introduced based on demand for computing power. According to Yahaya Ibrahim, MTN Nigeria’s Chief Technical Officer, both phases are valued at $235 million, while the cloud infrastructure alone costs $20 million.
Roger Shutte, MTN Nigeria’s General Manager for Infrastructure, told journalists during a press briefing that the facility is expected to scale up to 14 or even 20 megawatts, depending on future demand.
Speaking at the launch, MTN Nigeria CEO Karl Toriola said the company is proud of this milestone, describing it as a step towards enabling growth and supporting Nigeria’s tech ecosystem.
“We are going to continue to expand the capacity that we have, and part of that is the readiness for artificial intelligence,” he said.
Toriola also noted that the data centre is named after MTN Nigeria’s former CEO, Sifiso Dabengwa, in tribute to the man he said paved the way for the telecom operator’s success in Nigeria.
Bringing global-standard cloud services to Nigeria
Lynda Saint-Nwafor, MTN Nigeria’s Chief Enterprise Business Officer, revealed that the data centre’s cloud services offer self-orchestration capabilities—the first of its kind in Nigeria.
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