MTN Nigeria has completed the first phase of its $235 million Dabengwa Sifiso Data Centre, marking its official entry into commercial data hosting. The Tier III data centre facility is part of the telco’s broader push to strengthen cloud infrastructure.
The newly completed Phase 1 features a 4.5MW IT load, spans three floors, houses 780 racks, and costs $100 million to build. When fully developed, the facility will reach 9MW capacity, with Phase 2—estimated at $135 million—targeting Tier IV certification, the highest global benchmark for uptime and redundancy.
The project positions MTN at the forefront of Nigeria’s fast-growing data centre market, while also inserting the telecom giant into a competitive ecosystem long dominated by players such as MainOne (Equinix), Rack Centre, Digital Realty (via Medallion), and Open Access Data Centres (OADC).
The Dabengwa Sifiso Data Centre, named in honour of MTN Group’s former CEO, is a strategic move. With over 50 data centres across Africa and the Middle East, MTN is capitalising on its pan-African infrastructure to meet surging demand for low-latency cloud computing, digital platforms, and enterprise-level IT services.
Local cloud, local advantage
MTN’s push comes as Nigeria continues to rely heavily on foreign hyperscalers like Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure, leading to an estimated $350 million in annual capital flight for offshore data hosting, according to industry estimates. By offering in-country hosting, Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) solutions priced in naira, and full compliance with regulations like the Nigeria Data Protection Act (NDPA) and Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) mandates, MTN is making a direct play to localise cloud spend and capture enterprise demand.
“We are going to continue to expand the capacity we have in the data centre,” said Karl Toriola, CEO of MTN Nigeria, during a pre-launch briefing on June 30, 2025. “Part of that is the readiness for artificial intelligence and the processing power that AI needs and uses.”
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