That was the consensus at the Hyperscalers Convergence Africa conference in Lagos, where industry executives said the country’s power ecosystem is evolving to meet hyperscale and AI-era demand.

The high-level session brought together senior executives, regulators, and investors from 15 countries across and beyond Africa.

During the sessions on Data Center and Energy, speakers – including Guy Zibi, Managing Partner at Xalam Analytics; Johnson Agogbua, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) 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; Karim Amer, Head of IP Business for North, West, and Central Africa at Nokia; Tola Talabi, Chief Executive Officer of Elektron Energy; Wole Adeoti, Head Operations at Digital Realty; Gbenga Adegbiji, CEO, Geniserve and Diana, Senior Associate and Energy Policy Expert at George Etomi & Partners – shared critical insights on power, regulation, and investment in Africa’s data economy.

“Power isn’t scarce,” said Johnson Agogbua, CEO of Kasi Cloud Data Centers. “The challenge is reliable delivery and quality. We’re investing in redundancy to make sure every megawatt reaches the rack.” Kasi Cloud is currently developing a 100-megawatt hyperscale campus in Lekki, powered by a private 132-kilovolt substation and a 60-megawatt transformer.

Roger Shutte of MTN Nigeria echoed that sentiment. “Power is not a problem; it’s just a challenge,” he said.

This was reiterated by Tola Talabi, CEO of Elektron Energy, who added that Africa’s power challenge should now be viewed as an opportunity rather than a constraint.

“Power is not just a challenge – it’s an opportunity,” he said. “When developers and investors deploy capital, data centers are our most compelling customers. They provide the stable, long-term demand we need to make projects bankable.”

Talabi revealed that Elektron Energy is currently developing a $50 million Independent Power Project (IPP) in Victoria Island, designed to take much of the district off the national grid and provide reliable embedded power to multiple data centers.

“Data centers make the commercial case for investment in power stronger – they are the base load that anchors wider energy availability,” he said.

From a policy perspective, Diana, a legal practitioner and energy policy expert, said reforms under the Electricity Act 2023 could accelerate investment if states act decisively.

“State electricity markets could become critical,” she said. “They can create localized, bankable frameworks that attract investors and ensure returns.”

Despite lingering challenges, the tone across the panel was optimistic. “We’ve solved scarcity,” speakers concluded. “Now it’s about reliability, sustainability, and scale.”

Hyperscalers Convergence Africa 2025 was convened by Africa Hyperscalers and sponsored by Nokia, Open Access Data Centres (OADC), IHS Towers, Vertiv, Equinix, and the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA).

From the landing of its submarine cable to the launch of the initial data center in 2019, MainOne, An Equinix Company, has consistently delivered world-class connectivity, colocation, and interconnection services to support the technological requirements of customers in Cote d’Ivoire.

This expansion aims to further empower digital transformation, foster innovation, and support the ever-increasing demand for data processing, storage, and connectivity in Cote d’Ivoire and Francophone West Africa.

Etienne Kouadio Doh, MainOne’s Country Manager in Cote D’Ivoire, noted that the launch of the new data center in Cote d’Ivoire leads the company into an exciting phase of transformation for businesses as it delivers a great opportunity to welcome more customers into its rich digital ecosystem, interconnected to the major digital players in the region and delivering 100% uptime connectivity to internet.

“We expect this state-of-the-art facility to become a catalyst for digital innovation, providing a robust infrastructure for enterprises to thrive, and further reinforcing Cote d’Ivoire as the digital hub for the Francophone West African region.”

This expansion serves as an opportunity to accommodate more customers in Cote d’Ivoire, providing them with a bouquet of enterprise-grade digital solutions with access to global services and internet exchanges, including the Amsterdam Internet Exchange (AMS-IX) hosted at the data center. 

This state-of-the-art infrastructure will deliver advanced security systems, cutting-edge technologies, global certifications, in-country expert support and the region’s largest interconnected ecosystem to guarantee peak performance. 

Following the company’s acquisition by Equinix, customers will also gain access to over 240 data centers in 32 countries across the world through secure and dedicated interconnection services at our data center via the Equinix platform.

The report notes that the industry was able to limit the impact of capacity growth on total energy consumption prior to 2020 by improving operating efficiency.

However, in 2020, global internet traffic surged by more than 40%, and Market Intelligence projects a 13% compound annual growth rate in data center construction over the next five years. That trend, combined with increased focus on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and water consumption, has led some operators to seek new solutions that increase equipment utilization and drive out remaining inefficiencies, phase out water-intensive cooling technologies, and decrease their dependence on carbon-based energy sources.

“We’re seeing a sense of urgency by operators across the industry to reduce the impact of their operations on the environment, and this new resource is designed to help them do just that,” said TJ Faze, head of ESG strategy & engagement at Vertiv.

“The focus on operational efficiency has enabled significant improvements, but now new strategies and more intelligent systems are required to drive down emissions and water use as the industry continues to grow. As a provider of infrastructure solutions to enterprises, colocation, and cloud providers, Vertiv is well-positioned to share best practices and new developments across these sectors,” Faze said.

The industry movement has been led by large hyperscale operators who have set goals to become carbon neutral or carbon negative by the end of this decade.

These operators are taking the lead in advancing technologies that support these goals and developing a roadmap for the rest of the industry.

Many colocation providers are also moving to carbon-neutral and water-efficient operations to capitalize on market demand for data center services that support their enterprise customers’ environmental goals. Enterprises must also address the impact of their on-premises data centers to support those goals.

“In Europe alone, over 25 European cloud and data center operators and 17 other industry associations have signed an agreement to make their facilities carbon neutral via 100% renewable energy sources by 2030,” said Karsten Winther, EMEA president at Vertiv.

“This will only be achievable if organizations implement new strategies and innovative systems that reduce the consumption of resources. Our newly launched Guide, paired with our depth of experience in providing infrastructure solutions, allows us to share best practices and new innovations from across the industry to educate these operators and help to reduce the environmental footprint of their facilities, not only in Europe, but across the globe”, Winther said.

The Vertiv Guide to Data Center Sustainability provides guidance for operators on:

• The business case for reducing environmental impact
• How data center infrastructure and complementary technologies are evolving to support higher utilization and increased use of renewable energy
• Resources, frameworks, and metrics for implementing and measuring sustainability initiatives
• Best practices for designing and operating low-impact data centers