The African Data Center Market Enters a New Era of Expansion
After Digital Realty inaugurated a data center in Accra, Ghana, in late October, American giant Equinix has announced a $22 million investment to build a new site in Lagos, Nigeria. The facility, named LG3, is expected to come online in the first quarter of 2026 and mark a major milestone in the continent's digital transformation.
This project is part of Equinix's African expansion strategy, with the company planning to invest $100 million on the continent over the next two years as part of a global $390 million plan over five years, announced in February 2024. Present in Africa since its entry into the market in 2022, after acquiring Nigerian provider MainOne for $320 million, Equinix has already expanded its network to Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire, and South Africa, where it inaugurated its first data center in October 2024.
The new LG3 center will be located on Victoria Island, in the heart of Nigeria's economic hub, and will offer 610 square meters of space over four floors, providing colocation and advanced connectivity services to local and international businesses.
Meanwhile, Digital Realty, another American digital infrastructure giant, is also continuing its deployment on the continent. Its Accra center, named ACR2, has a computing capacity of 1.7 MW and can accommodate up to 500 racks. This project is part of a $500 million investment plan over ten years announced in 2021, confirming the growing interest of investors in West Africa.
These projects illustrate a broader movement: that of a continent on the rise in digital power. According to the "Data Centres in Africa" report published by Oxford Business Group in April 2024, Africa would need around 1,000 MW of additional capacity and 700 new installations to meet demand. The African data center market is expected to grow from $1.94 billion in 2025 to $3.85 billion in 2030, according to Mordor Intelligence, representing an average annual growth rate of nearly 15%.
For now, the continent still accounts for less than 2% of the global colocation supply, with more than half of this capacity concentrated in South Africa. However, the dynamics are accelerating, with hubs like Lagos, Accra, or Nairobi becoming strategic poles where innovation, talent, and infrastructure meet.
Beyond the numbers, this rush to data centers reflects the quest for connectivity and digital sovereignty. Global operators see it as a growth relay and a means to bring their services closer to African users. Governments, on the other hand, perceive it as an instrument of development and economic attractiveness.
For the continent, the stakes are multiple: securing local data, supporting the emergence of a performing tech ecosystem, and creating thousands of qualified jobs in cloud and digital infrastructure professions.
