MTN Nigeria has just launched West Africa’s largest Tier III data centre. Additionally it will be one of the largest in Africa. The data centre is called the Sifiso Dabengwa Data Centre. Furthermore, the data centre facility has a capacity of nine megawatts and is equipped with cloud infrastructure that the telco claims rivals offerings from Amazon, Microsoft, and Google. This project is testament to Africa’s growing data center story across the ccontinent.
As for now, MTN Nigeria has launched the first phase of the data centre, which delivers 4.5 megawatts of capacity. The second phase of the data centre will be introduced based on demand for computing power. As revealed by Yahaya Ibrahim who is MTN Nigeria’s Chief Technical Officer, both phases are valued at $235 million. As for the cloud infrastructure part alone, it cost $20 million.
Also read: MTN Nigeria is Building West Africa’s largest data centre
Sifiso Dabengwa Data Centre Project Factsheet
Name: Sifiso Dabengwa Data Centre. It is also referred to as Dabengwa Sifiso Data Centre.
Operator: MTN Nigeria
Location: Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria
Key features (Phase 1):
Investment (Phase 1): Approximately $100 million – $120 million (with an additional $20 million for cloud integration).
IT Load Capacity (Phase 1): 4.5MW
Certification (Phase 1): Tier III certified. This therefore means that it offers high availability with redundant power and cooling. Also, it has multiple independent distribution paths.
Racks: 780 racks
Floors: Spans three floors
Design: it is Nigeria’s largest pre-fabricated modular data center. The facility will have 96 containerized modules.
Cloud platform: Features MTN Cloud, Nigeria’s first self-orchestration cloud platform. It will allow the businesses to manage computing and storage similar to that of AWS or Google Cloud.
Carrier neutral: The facility is carrier-agnostic. It will allow clients to connect through any fiber provider.
Overall project (Phases 1 & 2):
Total estimated cost: $235 million – $255 million
Total IT load capacity: Designed for 9 MW, with potential to scale to 14 MW or even 20 MW based on demand.
Certification (Phase 2 target): Tier IV certification. This is the highest global benchmark for uptime and system redundancy.
Also read: Visa’s Nigeria Data Center Plans Unveiled
Future Plans on the Data Centre
Roger Shutte who is MTN Nigeria’s General Manager for Infrastructure, revealed to journalists during a press briefing that the facility will be scaling up to 14 or even 20 megawatts, this will depend on the future demand.
Speaking at the launch, MTN Nigeria CEO Karl Toriola mentioned that the company is proud of this significant milestone, describing it as a move towards providing room for growth and supporting Nigeria’s tech ecosystem.
“We shall continue expanding on the capacity that we have. Part of that is being ready for artificial intelligence,” he stated.
Naming the Data Centre
Furthermore, Toriola noted that the data centre is named after MTN Nigeria’s former CEO, Sifiso Dabengwa. This is in order to pay tribute to the man who paved the way for the telecom operator’s success in Nigeria.
Also, Lynda Saint-Nwafor who is MTN Nigeria’s Chief Enterprise Business Officer mentioned that the data centre’s cloud services offer self-orchestration capabilities. This makes the data centre the first of its kind in Nigeria.
Therefore, this means that similar to Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure, developers will be able to log in and independently manage their computing and storage needs remotely.
Also read: MTN Nigeria Announces Construction of West Africa’s Largest Data Center
