Telecommunications group, Airtel Africa, has announced plans to build its first 34 Megawatts NXtra Data Center in Lagos Nigeria.
According to a statement from the company, the Governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu; his Ogun State counterpart, Prince Dapo Abiodun; and the Minister of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, Dr Bosun Tijani, will be performing the ground-breaking of the facility later this month.
A Data Centre is a facility that centralizes organizations shared IT operations and equipment to store, process, and disseminate data and applications. According to a recent research conducted by Arizton Advisory and Intelligence, Nigeria Data Centre Market Size by Investment is expected to reach $218 Million by 2026.
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A milestone in Africa
Airtel said the NXtra data centre in Lagos will mark a milestone in Airtel Africa’s quest to enhance data sovereignty, security, and preservation within the continent. The facility is planned to operate with a remarkable Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) score of 1.3 while hosting high-density racks.
With the exponential growth of digital services and the increasing need for robust data capacity, the facility is poised to address the evolving requirements of businesses, governments, and large corporations in ensuring the integrity and accessibility of critical information and digital connections.
The business-agnostic centres are planned to be built in major cities in all the 14 countries where Airtel Africa maintains operations.
What they are saying
Commenting on the planned facility to be cited in Lagos, the Chief Executive Officer, Airtel Africa, Segun Ogunsanya, said:
- “NXtra is a critical next step towards unlocking greater opportunities for businesses to grow and help drive prosperity across Africa. As a company, we are proud to deliver another vital infrastructure to bring the benefits of technology closer to Africans.”
Also speaking, the Chief Executive Officer of Airtel Nigeria, Carl Cruz, noted that the NXtra Data Center is for the benefit of prospective customers in the nation’s commercial nerve centre.
- “We are certain that this infrastructure will propel Lagos, and Nigeria, towards a sustainable and more inclusive digital age,” he said.
Economic gains of data centres
While speaking on the increase in the number of data centres being cited in Nigeria recently, the immediate past Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof Umar Danbatta, said that more jobs are being created through the construction, operation, and maintenance of these data centres.
In addition, Danbatta said Nigeria is now well-positioned to attract a fair share of the multi-billion dollar global data centre market as more centres are being built in the country.
According to him, by providing a reliable and secure environment for the services they offer within a well-nurtured policy and regulatory framework, Nigeria represents an attractive destination for more investment in data centre services and operations.
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