Airtel Nigeria is investing $120 million to build a 38-megawatt data centre in Eko Atlantic, Lagos, with a core mission to power artificial intelligence infrastructure. The facility, now under construction, is set to go live in 2026 and has already received its first shipment of high-performance GPUs, marking a crucial milestone for local AI model training and deployment.

“We are talking about high-capacity data centres, which can take the load of artificial intelligence that Nigeria needs,” said Dinesh Balsingh, CEO of Airtel Nigeria.

AI Compute Over Cloud-First

While competitor MTN Nigeria is pursuing a cloud-first strategy, Airtel is focusing on AI compute capacity — a direct response to Nigeria’s 2024 draft National AI Strategy, which highlighted the urgent need for modern, local compute infrastructure to support data science, AI development, and multi-sector applications.

Boosting Nigeria’s Digital Economy

With just 16 operational data centres nationwide — compared to 75 combined in South Africa and Kenya — Airtel’s move is poised to serve both large enterprises and SMEs, laying critical groundwork for Nigeria’s AI-driven digital economy.