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By Chinenye Anuforo
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Nigeria’s artificial intelligence (AI) ambitions are shifting from conversations about algorithms, chatbots and digital skills to a more fundamental question of who builds and controls the infrastructure required to power the country’s AI economy.
Behind every AI assistant, fraud detection system, credit-scoring platform, health application and intelligent business tool are massive computing systems, data centres, cloud platforms, fibre networks, reliable electricity, advanced cooling technologies and large volumes of data.
As Nigerian businesses and government agencies accelerate the adoption of AI, the country is simultaneously entering a race to build the infrastructure that will support that growth.
The race is already attracting investments from local and international technology companies, data-centre operators and cloud providers, with Lagos emerging as the centre of Nigeria’s expanding digital infrastructure ecosystem. The development is also being driven by regulation.
From January 1, 2027, banks, fintech companies, mobile money operators and other payment service providers will be required to store and manage payment transaction data generated in Nigeria on local servers.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) directive has created fresh urgency around local data-centre capacity and could unlock significant investment in the sector as financial institutions prepare to comply.
But industry experts believe the implications go far beyond banking. The infrastructure being built to support local data storage could eventually become the foundation for artificial intelligence, cloud computing, digital healthcare, e-government services, education technology and other data-intensive applications.
According to industry estimates, Nigeria already has about 26 data-centre facilities, including 18 commercial facilities, with a significant concentration in Lagos.
Commercial live capacity is estimated at roughly 50 to 56 megawatts, although total installed capacity is considerably higher when facilities awaiting full equipment are included.
As demand for cloud services and AI computing increases, operators are expanding existing facilities while new players are entering the market.
Open Access Data Centres (OADC), one of the country’s major data-centre operators, is expanding its Lagos infrastructure towards 24MW and incorporating technologies designed to support artificial intelligence workloads.
OADC Chief Executive Officer, Dr Ayotunde Coker, said Nigeria already has the basic infrastructure required to support the next phase of its digital economy.
“The infrastructure is ready. We have the colocation facilities, the connectivity, indigenous cloud providers and the capacity to support financial institutions as they transition to local data hosting,” Coker said.
The challenge, however, is that artificial intelligence is placing new demands on data centres. Unlike many traditional cloud workloads, advanced AI applications require enormous computing power. Training and running sophisticated models require specialised processors, including graphics processing units (GPUs), high-density power systems, advanced cooling and extremely fast connectivity.
This is transforming the traditional data centre into something closer to a high-performance computing factory. OADC is already positioning its facilities for this emerging market, with AI-ready infrastructure, including liquid cooling and hybrid cloud architecture, forming part of its expansion plans.
Rack Centre, another major player in Nigeria’s data-centre industry, is also expanding its capacity, while Equinix, following its acquisition of MainOne, Africa Data Centres, Airtel’s Nxtra and other operators are competing for a share of the rapidly growing market.
Kasi Cloud is developing a hyperscale-ready facility in Lekki that is expected to scale significantly as demand increases.
The emerging competition suggested that the nation’s AI infrastructure will not be built by one company or one technology giant. Instead, it is likely to emerge from an ecosystem of data-centre operators, cloud providers, telecommunications companies, power providers, technology firms and investors.
A recent partnership between OADC and [AI] Analytics Intelligence illustrates how the market is evolving. The two companies announced a strategic partnership to advance sovereign AI and cloud solutions for African businesses, with the aim of enabling organisations to deploy high-performance AI computing locally while maintaining greater control over sensitive data.
Founder and Chief Executive Officer of [AI] Analytics Intelligence, David Edoja, said Africa’s AI ambitions must be supported by infrastructure designed around the continent’s realities. “Africa’s AI future depends on more than powerful technology; it depends on infrastructure that is secure, resilient, and built for the realities of our markets,” Edoja said.
The partnership is significant because it reflects a growing shift from simply storing data locally to actually processing and running AI workloads locally.
That distinction is becoming increasingly important. Nigeria can build large data centres and still remain heavily dependent on foreign cloud platforms for computing, storage, software and AI services. This is why the debate around sovereign cloud and sovereign AI is gaining momentum.
The question is no longer simply where Nigerian data is stored. It is increasingly about where the data is processed, who controls the computing infrastructure, where AI models run and how much of the underlying technology and value chain remains within the country.
The CBN’s data-localisation policy could accelerate that conversation. Financial institutions are among the largest generators and users of sensitive data in Nigeria. Ensuring that their transaction data is hosted locally will create additional demand for domestic data-centre capacity, connectivity, cybersecurity and cloud services. But the same infrastructure can subsequently serve other sectors.
As GFA Technologies Group co-founder, Adebola Omololu, noted, the infrastructure being created for today’s payment systems could support tomorrow’s AI workloads.
“The infrastructure deployed to support today’s payment systems will also provide the foundation for tomorrow’s AI workloads, digital healthcare, e-government services, education technology and enterprise cloud adoption,” Omololu said.
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For Nigeria, this creates an opportunity to turn regulation into infrastructure investment. However, the biggest challenge may not be the availability of data centres. It may be electricity.
Artificial intelligence is power-hungry. The greater the number of GPUs deployed in a facility, the greater the electricity requirement. High-density computing also generates significant heat, requiring sophisticated cooling systems and additional energy.
Nigeria’s unreliable power supply therefore presents a major challenge to the country’s ambition to become a regional AI and cloud hub. Data-centre operators are already exploring alternative power arrangements, including gas-powered generation and renewable energy, while investing in more efficient cooling systems and other technologies to reduce operating costs.
This means that Nigeria’s AI infrastructure race could create opportunities beyond technology.
It could stimulate investment in embedded power generation, renewable energy, batteries, cooling systems, fibre infrastructure, cybersecurity and other supporting industries. The country is also investing in the human capital needed to use this infrastructure.
Microsoft’s AI National Skills Initiative, implemented with the Federal Government, Data Science Nigeria and Lagos Business School, has reached more than 350,000 Nigerians with AI skills.
The Federal Government’s 3 Million Technical Talent programme has also identified areas including artificial intelligence and machine learning, cloud computing, data science, DevOps and cybersecurity among priority skills.
NITDA has similarly identified infrastructure, talent, research, policy and partnerships as critical components of Nigeria’s digital transformation and AI ambitions.
But there is a potential mismatch. Nigeria could train hundreds of thousands of people in AI while still lacking sufficient affordable computing infrastructure for those people and the businesses they create to build and scale locally.
Skills can create AI companies. Infrastructure determines how far those companies can go.
The international technology industry is also watching Africa’s emerging AI infrastructure market.
Google has been expanding its connectivity infrastructure across Africa, including strategic subsea cable hubs designed to strengthen digital connections between African countries and the rest of the world. The company has said it has invested more than $1 billion in Africa’s digital infrastructure while expanding access to AI tools, research and skills.
NVIDIA has also been pushing accelerated computing and AI infrastructure across Africa, reflecting the growing recognition that the continent’s AI market will require computing capacity closer to users.
The International Monetary Fund has estimated that AI could raise economic output in sub-Saharan Africa by as much as four per cent over the next decade if countries address major constraints including electricity, internet connectivity and digital skills.
For Nigeria, the opportunity is considerable. The country has one of Africa’s largest digital economies, a huge technology and fintech ecosystem, extensive submarine cable connectivity, a growing data-centre industry and a large pool of young technology talent.
But these advantages do not automatically translate into AI leadership.
Nigeria is competing with other African countries seeking to position themselves as regional technology, cloud and AI hubs.
The real competition, therefore, may not be about who has the largest data centre.
It will be about who can bring together power, GPUs, cloud platforms, fibre networks, data, cybersecurity, skilled professionals and capital at the right cost and scale.
For the government, this means creating an environment capable of attracting long-term infrastructure investment while ensuring that regulation does not make local operations prohibitively expensive.
For data-centre operators, the opportunity is moving beyond basic colocation towards AI-ready computing, cloud and interconnection services.
For cloud providers, it means bringing more computing closer to Nigerian users.
For Nigerian businesses, it means deciding whether their future AI workloads will continue to depend primarily on infrastructure outside the country or whether local infrastructure can provide competitive alternatives.
And for investors, it presents an emerging infrastructure opportunity in an economy where demand for computing is expected to grow as AI adoption accelerates.
Nigeria’s AI story, therefore, is no longer simply about who will build the next chatbot or launch the next AI application.
It is about who will build the digital industrial base beneath them.
The country has begun the race for AI infrastructure. The question now is whether it will merely provide the users and market for the AI revolution or own enough of the infrastructure powering it to capture a meaningful share of the value. For a country seeking to become Africa’s leading digital economy, that may ultimately be the most important AI race of all.
