In a blog post, Equinix, the international data centre provider that purchased Nigeria’s MainOne, said that it will spend $140 million over the next two years to increase digital infrastructure throughout southern Nigeria.
An important step towards decentralising the nation’s internet capacity outside of Lagos is the investment, which comprises the development of its third data centre in Lagos and the construction of a new data centre in Port Harcourt. The action was taken five months after Equinix finished integrating the MainOne after paying $320 million for the company in 2022.
Equinix is currently expanding its presence in Nigeria, where Lagos still houses 70% of the country’s subsea cable landings and data infrastructure. A long-standing digital divide has been strengthened by this trend.
Continuing, PR1, Equinix’s first data centre, will be opened in Port Harcourt as part of the expansion, and will also be the first landing point for Meta’s 2Africa submarine cable in Nigeria. The action is anticipated to lessen the region’s excessive reliance on Lagos and significantly boost bandwidth capacity. The company will also expand its third facility in Lagos, LG3, to accommodate the increasing demand for cloud and enterprise services.
Over the past 20 years, Nigeria’s digital infrastructure has significantly changed. The number of mobile customers has increased from zero to over 140 million since the 2001 GSM license auction. With the emergence of tower businesses in 2012 and subsequent investments in data centres and fibre-optic networks, infrastructure further matured.
However, local data infrastructure was scarce until recently and barely met the most basic connectivity requirements. When big international investors like Equinix started to enter the industry in 2020, it marked Nigeria’s entry into the larger digital economy, BrandSpur telecom and information news desk reports.
In 74 major cities across the world, Equinix currently runs more than 260 International Business Exchange (IBX) data centres. Through Equinix Fabric, a software-defined architecture that facilitates safe, effective communication across data centres, cloud services, and enterprise networks, these centres are connected.
Eight underwater cable landings are captured in Nigeria at present, including two of the most sophisticated systems in the world: Google’s Equiano and Meta’s 2Africa. Both cables provide a design capacity of more than 100 Tbps, which is a significant advancement in connectivity. Nevertheless, without strong infrastructure redundancy, the advantages of this development are still tenuous.
According to Wole Abu, Equinix West Africa’s Managing Director, in the blog post available to BrandSpur telecom and information news desk: “We’re routing traffic over multiple cables in West Africa on an active/active basis.
“The next time a cable fails, our goal is for customers not to notice,” he added.
It is expedient to know that the digital infrastructure in the area gains vital resilience as a result of this proactive approach.
The middle-mile infrastructure that connects coastal landing points to inland customers continues to be a major barrier despite notable advancements in international connection. Many interior regions are still underserved, despite the comparatively excellent connectivity enjoyed by cities like Lagos, Accra, and Abidjan. By 2025, 70% of Nigerians will have access to the Internet, according to the country’s National Internet Plan (2020–2025). However, penetration is just 45% as of January 2025.
According to World Bank projections, Nigeria will require an extra 95,000 kilometres of fibre, up from 35,000 kilometres, to attain complete countrywide coverage. The Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy recently established a Broadband Alliance to create a nationwide fibre backbone to close this gap. Equinix and other private sector companies are thought to be essential to realising that goal.
Furthering, Abu has this to say: “Our vendor-neutral platform and robust interconnection capabilities can help industry ecosystems form in West Africa and collaborate to grow the region’s digital economy.”
In addition to increasing internet capacity in Southern Nigeria, the Equinix PR1 launch in Port Harcourt will help diversify the digital infrastructure geographically. Through the project, Lagos’ near-monopoly on cable access and bandwidth could be broken, potentially creating new digital growth corridors in the area. To improve internet access throughout southern Nigeria over the next two years, Equinix, a global data centre operator, has announced an investment of $140 million.
Equinix entered the West African market in 2022 when it acquired the MainOne for $320 million. This move adds to that acquisition. The company wants to improve Nigeria’s uneven digital infrastructure distribution, where Lagos has long dominated development.
Equinix PR1, the company’s first data centre in Port Harcourt, and Equinix LG3, its third data centre in Lagos, will both be expanded as part of the investments. Notably, the Port Harcourt facility will also be the first landing station for Meta’s 2Africa undersea cable in Nigeria, ending Lagos’ long-standing monopoly on cable landings and significantly expanding the region’s bandwidth capacity. This is particularly important for southern Nigeria, which serves as the economic hub of the nation’s oil industry in addition to housing a rapidly expanding population.
Nigeria’s digital transformation has happened quickly, as there are now over 140 million mobile subscribers, up from zero at the time of the 2001 GSM license auction. As tower firms grew in 2012, operators were able to scale by outsourcing tower maintenance. The digital ecosystem was further expanded with the introduction of fibre-optic and data centre equipment.
Early data centres met the need for simple connectivity. When significant foreign investors arrived about 2020, the actual change occurred. A significant milestone was reached when Equinix acquired MainOne, giving Nigeria access to a worldwide platform and creating the framework for scalable digital expansion.
