Africa’s data center power demand is growing between 20% and 25% annually and could reach 8,000 gigawatt-hours (GWh) in the coming years, raising fresh questions about how the continent will power its digital future.
This concern was raised by experts who spoke at the Hyperscalers Convergence Africa 2025 conference in Lagos.
Themed “The Power of Convergence,” the summit drew key players from Africa’s digital infrastructure, telecom, and cloud industries, all calling for urgent reforms to address energy deficits, regulatory bottlenecks, and talent flight that threaten to slow the continent’s digital growth.
Delivering the keynote, Bill Kleyman, Chief Executive of Apolo.us and Executive Chair for Data Center Programs at Informa, described Africa as “one of the world’s fastest-growing digital markets,” but cautioned that unreliable power supply could become a major choke point for expansion.
“Data-center power demand on the continent is growing at 20–25% annually and could reach 8,000 gigawatt-hours. The industry is at a point where success requires two things: power and bravery,” he said.
AI adoption compounds challenge
He noted that global AI adoption is compounding the challenge, with data center rack densities rising from 16 to 60 kilowatts, while only about 10% of facilities are currently equipped to handle AI workloads.
“Vision without execution is just hallucination. Africa has a chance to seize its nugget in this digital gold rush,” he added.
With Africa accounting for 18% of the world’s population but less than 2% of global data center capacity, experts said bridging the power gap is critical to unlocking the next phase of growth.
- Executive Director of Africa Hyperscalers, which hosted the event, Temitope Osunrinde, warned that while investment momentum is building fast, boosted by new subsea cables and infrastructure projects from Meta, Google, Equinix, and Visa, the continent’s energy shortfall remains severe.
- According to him, 600 million Africans still lack electricity, even as new data centers consume the equivalent of small cities.
- While calling on African governments to fast-track approvals, open telecom networks to competition, and incentivize renewable energy, Osunrinde noted that 50% of a data center’s cost is equipment.
Talent retention: The next bottleneck
On a panel about scaling to 2,500 MW of data capacity, CEO of Kasi Cloud, Johnson Agogbua, argued that Africa’s real challenge may not be technology, but people.
“We’ll solve power and connectivity. But can we train enough people and keep them here?” he asked.
- General Manager for Infrastructure and Cloud Engineering at MTN Nigeria, Roger Shutte, echoed the sentiment, emphasizing the need to retain skilled professionals to ensure “digital sovereignty.”
- CEO of the Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria (IXPN), Muhammed Rudman, added that localizing internet content is also vital for digital efficiency.
“Before now, Nigeria’s networks were largely access networks, always reaching out to content abroad. What we’re doing is keeping that content home,” he said.
Speaking during the AI and policy sessions, Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Dr. Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, outlined Nigeria’s roadmap for digital sovereignty through data-driven regulation and local talent development.
He said the government’s 3 Million Technical Talent (3MTT) program is key to transforming the country’s youthful population into a productive digital workforce, while new Public-Private Partnership (PPP) tools and a National Digital Public Infrastructure linking identity, payments, and data platforms will accelerate inclusive growth.
What you should know
The International Monetary Fund (IMF), in a recent report, had expressed concerns that the surging demand for electricity to power Artificial intelligence (AI) data centers could create new challenges for energy infrastructure, prices, and emissions globally.
- The IMF noted that AI technologies are reshaping productivity, employment, and investment patterns worldwide, with the potential to significantly raise the average pace of annual global economic growth.
- According to recent estimates by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), data centers consumed about 500 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity in 2023, a figure that more than doubled the annual average from 2015 to 2019.
- IMF said that number could triple to 1,500 TWh by 2030, rivaling the current electricity consumption of India, the world’s third-largest electricity consumer.
