Lagos tops investment destination in Africa for digital infrastructure —Experts

The leading role Lagos is playing in driving investment was highlighted during a panel session hosted by Digital Infra-Africa, where industry experts deliberated on the impact of growing investments by global players in data centres in the continent.

The session, moderated by Mr Mustapha Louni, Senior Vice President, Middle East, Africa and Greater India, Uptime Institute, had MainOne Chief Executive Officer, Funke Opeke, joined by M Robert Mullins, Chief Executive Officer, Raxio Group; Jan Hnizdo, of Teraco and Mike Last, Chief Marketing Officer & VP, International Business Development, WIOCC.

The market leaders noted that the spate of acquisitions and new entrants within the past six months, including Equinix – MainOne’s new parent company, Digital Realty, Cassava Technologies and WIOCC.

As a result, growth in investments in the data centre market in the continent has become exponential. Such investments continue to be fuelled by the growth of broadband access and data consumption across the continent’s large economies, of which Nigeria is the largest and Lagos is the commercial nerve centre.

MainOne boss, Funke Opeke, stated that: “When you look at the connected population and the growth potentials of the numbers that remain unconnected, we see a large opportunity for growth in data consumption level and this is attracting global market players.

“MainOne is market leader in Lagos already and we will continue to make investments with our new parent company, Equinix, to remain at the forefront of the increasing digitisation happening on the continent.”

These views are in line with recently published statistics on investments flowing into the tech sector in the continent.

“Lagos State government has actively championed these initiatives and investments in technology by creating an enabling environment for businesses to flourish and also by providing active support to investors in the state through its numerous programmes and initiatives.

“The effort is bearing fruits, as in the last one month, Lagos has attracted over one billion dollars’ worth of committed investment from technology giants like Microsoft, who opened its new African Development Centre in the state; Google who this week launched its state-of-the-art submarine internet cable in Lagos and Equinix who recently completed its acquisition of MainOne with a $320 million deal,” she said.

To put the level of investment that Lagos would attract in the next few years into context, at the recent launch of MainOne’s MDXi Lekki II Data Centre, Judith Gardiner, VP Growth and Emerging Markets at Equinix stated that, “…Amsterdam as a key hub, with a population of one million people has nine Equinix Data Centres with over 106 MW capacity.