In the global race for AI supremacy, Africa’s “physical layer”, the subsea cables, terrestrial fibre, and data centres, remains a black box to the general public.
To bridge this knowledge gap, Africa Hyperscalers recently convened a high-level media workshop in Lagos, bringing together journalists and infrastructure heavyweights like Rack Centre, Open Access Data Centres (OADC), and the Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria (IXPN).
The objective: to move the narrative from “internet access” to “infrastructure economics,” especially as Nigeria prepares for an AI-driven industrial shift.
Infrastructure as the ‘New Roads’
Digital infrastructure is no longer a luxury; it is the new “essential utility.” Temitope Osunrinde, executive director of Africa Hyperscalers, noted that subsea cables and data centres are now as critical to national development as roads and ports.
“If Africa is to shape credible narratives that attract long-term investment, the media must understand how these systems work and what it takes to deliver them,” Osunrinde emphasized.
The ‘Last Mile’ Reality: From Subsea to the Street
One of the workshop’s core tracks, led by Adebola Adefarati of Rack Centre and Gbenga Adegbiji of Geniserve, deconstructed the journey of a single byte of data:
The Landing: International bandwidth arriving at subsea cable stations.
The Middle Mile: Metropolitan fibre networks and the engineering hurdles of city-wide deployment.
The Edge: Carrier-neutral data centres that provide the “compute” power for local fintechs and streaming platforms.
The Pillars of the Infrastructure Economy
| Layer | Key Components | Current Challenge |
| Connectivity | Subsea Cables, Terrestrial Fibre | Vandalism & “Middle Mile” bottlenecks. |
| Compute | Carrier-Neutral Data Centres | Power availability & high facility cooling costs. |
| Interconnection | Internet Exchange Points (IXPN) | High latency due to non-localised traffic. |
| Cloud/AI | Hyperscale Platforms | Data sovereignty & ethical AI reporting. |
Reducing Latency: The Battle for Local Traffic
Muhammed Rudman, CEO of IXPN, highlighted a critical “blind spot”: the importance of localising internet traffic. By keeping Nigerian data within Nigerian borders through local peering, the industry can significantly reduce latency (lag) and lower the cost of internet for end-users. This “Digital Sovereignty” is essential for the effective deployment of AI and real-time fintech applications.
Journalism in the Age of AI
The workshop concluded with a session led by Toni Kan of The Media Training Room, on the ethical use of AI in newsrooms.
The workshop concluded with a panel on “The Media’s Powerful Role in Enabling Digital Infrastructure Development in Nigeria, featuring Tayo Fagbule, Bureau Chief, West Africa CNBC; Obinna Adumike, head, Converged Infrastructure, Open Access Data Centres (OADC); Muhammed Rudman, CEO, Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria, and Temitope Osunrinde.
The consensus was clear: while AI can automate reporting, technically informed journalism is required to track infrastructure projects, explain complex financing models, and hold operators accountable.
