Nxtra project will make Nigeria hub for digital services—Airtel

Telecommunications service provider, Airtel Africa, has said that its NXTra data center project will make Nigeria a major hub for access to digital services as it propel Africa towards a sustainable and inclusive digital age when completed.

The Group Chief Executive Officer of the company, Segun Ogunsanya, stated this during the groundbreaking of the project in Lagos recently.

Ogunsanya said the Nxtra project marks a significant milestone in the company’s journey and is a cornerstone of the organization’s growth strategy, with a particular focus on Nigeria, its largest market.

While noting that the project will enhance data sovereignty, security, and preservation within the continent, Ogunsanya said the data center also reflects the group’s commitment to make Nigeria a major hub for access to digital services as it propel Africa towards a sustainable and inclusive digital age.

“This mega project will provide over 1000 jobs. More significantly, once deployed and at capacity, it will create over 250 permanent jobs for Nigerians whilst supporting companies in manufacturing, financial services, and health care as they move their data and computing into third-party data centers like ours.

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“Ultimately, we have to store data and content closer to where it is being consumed,” Ogunsanya said.

Also speaking at the ground-breaking ceremony, the Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr Bosun Tijani extolled the revolutionary opportunities ahead for business and the economy in a future driven by connectivity via data centers such as NXtra and powered by technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) that the future of business.

“Data is a key driver in our economy. Not only do we need to connect our people, we also must invest in the digital economy, and through the investment that companies like Airtel have made in our economy, we are fully able to participate in the digital economy,” he said.

The Nxtra by Airtel data center in Lagos will deliver 38 megawatts of total power and host high-density racks that integrate the latest best practice construction to achieve 1.3 power usage effectiveness (PUE). It is expected to be live by the first quarter of 2026.

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The facility will be the first of five hyperscale data centres to be developed by Airtel Africa on the continent.

Combined, these data centres will offer a robust 180-megawatt capacity, distributed across 13 major data centre and over 48 edge data centres. Coupled with Airtel Africa’s extensive fibre footprint, Nxtra offers secure and scalable integrated solutions to global hyper-scalers, large African enterprises, startups, SMEs and governments.

Through locally available data centre capacity, speed to access digital services will improve and the cost of managing data will be reduced, thus helping power increased innovation, while supporting a new generation of African tech talent.