Nigeria Still 2–3 Years Away From AI-Ready Data Centres — Digital Realty CEO Ike Nnamani
The Chief Executive Officer of Digital Realty Nigeria, Engr. Ike Nnamani, has stated that data centres across the country are still several years away from being able to support core Artificial Intelligence (AI) workloads, despite the rapid growth of Nigeria’s AI ecosystem.
Speaking at the CEO Breakfast Roundtable organised by the Nigeria Information Technology Reporters’ Association (NITRA), Nnamani explained that while local data centres can currently run cloud services, none has the infrastructure required for high-density, AI-specific computing.
“The closest we have today in terms of data centre infrastructure are facilities that can run cloud services. But when it comes to core AI, none of the data centres in Nigeria was designed for that,” he said.
Nigeria’s AI Ecosystem Growing Faster Than Its Infrastructure
Nnamani revealed that Nigeria’s AI community is expanding rapidly, with over 300 members of a local AI association actively building and selling AI solutions powered by global AI platforms.
However, he stressed that deploying compute-intensive systems such as large language models (LLMs), deep learning clusters, and advanced inference engines requires AI-ready data centres with:
- High-density rack capacity
- Advanced cooling systems (including liquid cooling)
- Robust power infrastructure
- Purpose-built designs for AI workloads
“The question we must ask is: what is the plan to build AI-enabled data centres, and who has the technology and financial capacity to make it happen?” Nnamani added.
Global Operators Needed to Build Nigeria’s AI Data Future
According to Nnamani, developing AI-ready data centres in Nigeria will depend heavily on global players with experience in high-performance computing (HPC) environments.
“That is where global players like Digital Realty come in. These companies have already implemented AI infrastructure in their facilities worldwide, and importantly, they have the financial muscle to do it,” he noted.
He emphasised that Nigeria must begin to localise AI processing, just as it did with local data hosting—but warned that such capabilities require new data centres designed from the ground up for AI workloads.
Nnamani estimated that Nigeria is two to three years away from achieving this, meaning major AI applications will continue relying on foreign-hosted infrastructure for now.
South Africa Leads Africa With AI-Ready Data Centres
Highlighting regional competition, Nnamani pointed to Digital Realty’s South African subsidiary, Teraco, which recently launched an AI-ready data centre equipped with liquid cooling and high-density compute environments.
“One of their data centres is bigger than all the data centres in Nigeria combined in terms of IT load,” he said, underscoring the gap between both markets.
He added that Digital Realty is already planning larger hyperscale facilities in Nigeria to help bridge the deficit.
Policy Momentum Strong but Funding Remains a Major Risk
Despite the infrastructure challenges, the Nigerian government, through the Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr Bosun Tijani, continues to push an ambitious national AI agenda.
A recent report, ‘State of AI Policy in Africa 2025’, shows Nigeria leads West Africa in AI adoption and policy development. However, the report warns that chronic underfunding may stall progress unless domestic investment increases significantly.
