Africa’s data center capacity – currently estimated between 1.5 and 1.6 gigawatts – could triple by 2030, according to industry experts at the Hyperscalers Convergence Africa conference, held in Lagos, Nigeria.
The high-level session brought together senior executives, regulators, and investors from 15 countries across and beyond Africa.
During the Data Center Panel themed “Data Center and Cloud in Africa: The Journey to 2,500 MW,” industry experts, including Guy Zibi, Managing Partner at Xalam Analytics; Johnson Agogbua, Chief Executive Officer of Kasi Cloud Data Centers; Roger Shutte, General Manager, Infrastructure & Cloud Engineering at MTN Nigeria; Snehar Shah, Chief Executive Officer of IX Africa Data Centres; and Karim Amer, Head of IP Business for North, West, and Central Africa at Nokia, shared insights on Africa’s evolving data infrastructure landscape.
Amer from Nokia said North Africa is leading a new wave of investment. “By 2030, Egypt will account for about 25 percent of Africa’s total data center capacity, Morocco 15 percent, and Nigeria around 9 percent,” he said. “The balance of growth will depend on energy reliability, cross-border regulation, and policy openness.”
Zibi of Xalam Analytics, said the global AI race has redefined Africa’s opportunity map.
“If Africa captures even half a percent of global data-center power demand by 2030, that’s at least one gigawatt of new capacity,” he said. “The question is: who will finance, regulate, and staff it?”
Shah of IX Africa Data Centres, said regional frameworks will be key.
“We need East African data-sharing frameworks so neighbouring countries can use Kenya’s infrastructure,” he said. “Otherwise, capacity will remain isolated while demand elsewhere grows.”
Panelists agreed that AI, cloud, and fintech workloads are accelerating faster than infrastructure can keep up. “The learning journey has shortened dramatically since November 2022 – what used to take 18 months to build as a minimum viable product now takes me an evening” said Roger Shutte, General Manager, Infrastructure & Cloud Engineering at MTN Nigeria. “The real challenge now is deployment — the infrastructure must be ready to keep up with that speed.”
The Hyperscalers Convergence Africa was convened by Africa Hyperscalers and supported by Nokia, Open Access Data Centres (OADC), IHS Towers, Vertiv, Equinix, and the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA).
