Shoyinka Shodunke, chief information officer of MTN Nigeria, said this as he delivered the keynote on the digital economy forecast for 2026 at Tech Revolution Africa Conference 2.0 in Lagos, headlined by MTN. 

Speaking under the theme “The Big Bold Step,” Shodunke stressed that the fourth industrial revolution is the first moment in history where Africa can compete on equal terms, but only if it moves fast.

“The inputs today are data, and where’s the factory? The factory sits in the cloud,” he said.

During the first industrial revolution, the continent was absent. In the second, it supplied raw materials. In the third, it became a consumer of finished technology. Each delay came at a cost.

“We got punished for the first. Got punished for the second time. We got punished for the third,” he said. “But in the fourth, if we fail to act, we get punished again.”

What makes this era different, he explained, is that scale no longer depends on capital. With cloud services, access to talent from anywhere and locally generated data, the limitations are lower. Startups no longer need massive data centres or years of runway before launching products.

“You can subscribe to cloud services today at $50,” he said. “You don’t have to invest over $100,000 on compute power for you to be able to power your industry.”

Shodunke explained that the actual threat is not lack of technology but fear, fear of disrupting existing business models, revenue streams and comfortable ways of working. He warned that organisations clinging to legacy systems risk repeating Africa’s old mistakes.

“You cannot live with a legacy mindset, a fear of disruption, or with the comfort of mediocrity,” Shodunke further stated at the Tech Revolution Africa Conference 2.0. “Whatever is being built has to be built with a scale in mind, not mediocre.”

Using MTN as a case study, he described how the telecoms giant has had to intentionally disrupt itself, moving beyond voice and data into cloud services, fintech and intelligent platforms layered on top of its network infrastructure.

“History punished everyone who hesitated,” he warned. “So don’t really wait for the perfect time to come in, only take that big bold step.”

In closing, he stressed that the race has already started. Africa is not arriving late anymore, but hesitation could still leave it watching others disrupt.

“Revolution,” Shodunke said, “it punishes hesitations.”

At the Hyperscalers Convergence Africa conference in Lagos, experts argued that Africa can build the next generation of AI and cloud infrastructure without repeating the carbon-heavy mistakes of older markets.

“Africa can lead by innovating in green energy as alternatives to gas,” said Karim Amer, head of IP Business for Nokia. “We can design smarter, cleaner systems from the start.”

Tola Talabi, chief executive officer, Electron Energy, said data centers are helping unlock investment in renewables. “Data centers are the most bankable customers for power projects,” he explained. “Their predictable consumption de-risks financing and makes clean energy viable at scale.”

Talabi’s firm is developing a 50-megawatt independent power project in Victoria Island designed to support commercial and digital customers. “Power isn’t the problem,” he said. “It’s transmission and liquidity – we need reforms that make renewable projects bankable.”

Wale Adeoti, head of Operations, Digital Realty Nigeria, said efficiency gains are also key. “By using variable-speed drives (VSDs) and better cooling containment, we can cut power use by up to 30 percent,” he said.

As hyperscalers demand green hosting options, several African markets are integrating renewables into data-center design. Morocco and Egypt are developing hundreds of megawatts of solar-backed capacity, while Kenya and Nigeria are piloting hybrid solar-gas systems.

“Green megawatts will define competitiveness,” Amer said. “Africa has the opportunity to build infrastructure that’s efficient, clean, and globally attractive.”

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).

The new data centre is part of efforts to expand the company’s capacity ten folds and consolidate its leadership as a major digital infrastructure hub in West Africa. 

The new build known as Rack Centre LGS 2 data center which is in the heart of Ikeja, with easy access to the main commercial areas of Lagos, will be situated on a 20,000 square meters green field site and sits at over 30 meters above sea level. 

With this expansion, Rack Centre would have a net lettable space of 3240 sqm and an IT load of 13.5MW as against the current data center, LGS1, which has an IT load of 1.5MW and a net lettable space of 1094 sqm.

The Chief Operating Officer, Ezekiel Egboye, stated the company is delighted to be a part of the ongoing digital transformation on the continent, especially as more African businesses need more internet capacity to support their operations, ascertaining the company’s readiness to enable digital infrastructure by hosting a large number of Hyperscalers, content, and cloud delivery networks, internet service providers at its facility.

Briefing the journalists, he said, “The Lagos Campus data center has grown to be the largest carrier and cloud-neutral digital infrastructure hub in West Africa, and with this expansion, we intend on further growing our thriving ecosystem’’.

Rack Centre’s rich ecosystem includes 60+ telecommunication carriers, Internet Service Providers (ISPs), global Tier 1 networks, and pan Africa international carriers, including direct interconnections to all five undersea cables serving the South Atlantic Coast of Africa including Equiano and in the foreseeable future 2Africa and every country on the Atlantic coast of Africa. 

Rack Centre became the first International Finance Corporation (IFC) EDGE-certified data center in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. 

Officially making this the first Green Certified Data Centre in Africa and the most connected facility in the region, according to its Peering DB ranking.

As companies grow and collect more data, it becomes increasingly important to scale their data infrastructure to support their expanding needs.

This can be a challenging task, as data infrastructure is often complex and requires careful planning and execution. In this article, we will explore some best practices for scaling your data infrastructure.

1. Start with a solid foundation

The first step in scaling your data infrastructure is to ensure that you have a solid foundation in place. This includes having a well-structured data schema, a robust database management system, and a reliable data pipeline.

These components form the backbone of your data infrastructure and should be designed to handle the volume and complexity of data you expect to collect.

2. Choose the right technologies

As your data infrastructure grows, it’s important to choose the right technologies to support your needs. This may involve selecting a different database management system or using new data processing tools. Consider the scalability, reliability, and cost of each technology, and choose those that best meet your needs.

3. Use cloud services

Cloud services, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) or Google Cloud Platform (GCP), can provide significant benefits when scaling your data infrastructure. These services offer flexible, scalable, and cost-effective solutions for storing, processing and analyzing data. By using cloud services, you can avoid the costs and complexities of managing your own data center, and instead focus on your core business.

4. Leverage distributed systems

Distributed systems, such as Apache Hadoop or Apache Spark, can help you scale your data processing and analysis capabilities.

These systems allow you to process large volumes of data in parallel, making it possible to analyze data at scale. By leveraging distributed systems, you can take advantage of the power of many computers working together to process and analyze data faster than a single machine could.

5. Optimize data storage

Data storage is a critical component of any data infrastructure, and optimizing it can help you scale more effectively.

This may involve using compression or partitioning to reduce storage requirements or selecting a storage system that is designed to handle large volumes of data. By optimizing your data storage, you can reduce costs, improve performance, and support larger data volumes.

6. Monitor and optimize performance

As you scale your data infrastructure, it’s important to monitor and optimize performance to ensure that your system is running efficiently.

This may involve monitoring key performance metrics, such as query latency or data throughput, and making adjustments as needed. By monitoring and optimizing performance, you can identify and address bottlenecks before they become major problems.

7. Invest in data governance

As your data infrastructure grows, it becomes increasingly important to invest in data governance. This involves creating policies and procedures for managing data quality, security, and compliance. By implementing strong data governance practices, you can ensure that your data remains accurate, secure, and compliant with regulatory requirements.

In conclusion, scaling your data infrastructure requires careful planning, execution, and ongoing optimization. By starting with a solid foundation, choosing the right technologies, leveraging cloud services and distributed systems, optimizing data storage, monitoring and optimizing performance, and investing in data governance, you can build a data infrastructure that supports your growing business needs. With a scalable and reliable data infrastructure in place, you can extract insights from your data and make informed business decisions that drive growth and success.

About the writer:

Oluwaseyi Olugbenro is a talented data analyst leading data infrastructure and analysis at the world’s most innovative companies. He is skilled at turning raw data into beautiful insights and actionable decisions to scale tech products.