MTN Enters Nigeria’s Data Hosting Market with New Tier III Facility in Lagos
Named after former MTN Group CEO Sifiso Dabengwa, the facility underscores MTN’s strategy to leverage its continental infrastructure footprint.
MTN Nigeria has officially opened the first phase of its Dabengwa Sifiso Data Centre, a $100 million facility marking its entry into commercial data hosting. The launch positions the telco among Nigeria’s major infrastructure players, with ambitions to shape the country’s digital backbone.
Located in Lagos, the Tier III facility delivers 4.5MW of IT load across three floors and houses 780 racks. Once complete, the entire project will boast a 9MW capacity, with the second phase aiming for Tier IV certification—an international gold standard for uptime and system redundancy.
This move strengthens MTN’s play in Nigeria’s fast-evolving data centre space, where local and global firms like MainOne (Equinix ), Rack Centre, and Digital Realty (Medallion) already operate.
Named after former MTN Group CEO Sifiso Dabengwa, the facility underscores MTN’s strategy to leverage its continental infrastructure footprint. MTN Nigeria CEO Karl Toriola said the launch reflects the company’s readiness for future technologies, including AI and cloud-native platforms.
According to the telco, the combined investment across both phases is valued at $235 million, including $20 million dedicated to cloud capabilities. Internal estimates suggest the site could eventually scale beyond 14MW to meet rising enterprise demand.
