The WIOCC Group company can now boast of faster capacity deployment, higher‑density workloads and scalable growth without operational disruption.

Originally deployed by Vertiv as a prefabricated, modular, Tier III-compliant data centre for a pan-African telecommunications provider, the Parklands facility was designed to support phased expansion and evolving workload requirements.

By standardising on Vertiv infrastructure, OADC can accelerate deployments, support higher‑density customer workloads and expand data centre capacity without major redesign.

The facility uses integrated Vertiv power protection, thermal management, containment, and energy storage, designed to adapt to changing load profiles, improve energy efficiency, and support long-term scalability.

Today, Parklands supports hyperscaler and AI-driven organisations, where power density, thermal efficiency and deployment agility are critical. The IDC 8 data hall provides a modular, scalable infrastructure foundation designed to support evolving requirements while maintaining efficient operations.

The recently commissioned IDC 10 hall builds on this approach, extending the same modular architecture into a traditional build while maintaining performance, flexibility and product consistency for a broad mix of enterprise needs, helping customers scale confidently as demand grows.

Marc Matthews, engineering director and head of projects at OADC, says:

“OADC made an executive decision to standardise on Vertiv infrastructure solutions. The Vertiv brand essentially sells itself; we don’t have to convince our clients of Vertiv efficiencies, which builds confidence from the outset. Vertiv’s technology is tried and tested, with an excellent reputation. Beyond the equipment itself, the local Vertiv team has also played a critical role in supporting our strategy, reinforcing OADC’s decision to appoint Vertiv as one of our preferred vendors.”

Gary Chomse, regional director for Central and Southern Africa at Vertiv, adds:

“Parklands reflects a broader shift in data centre design across Africa to prioritise flexibility, scalability and efficiency. By combining prefabricated modular infrastructure with high-performance power and cooling technologies, Vertiv is helping OADC scale capacity while maintaining operational resilience and efficiency.”

DE-CIX said it is working on this project alongside the NGO ‘Internet pour tous’ (Internet For All) and UNITED S.A., an Internet connectivity and web hosting provider based in Kinshasa (Democratic Republic of the Congo – DRC).

With this move, ACIX becomes the first distributed IX in the DRC. The placement in the neutral and state-of-the-art colocation data center marks an important step in strengthening the digital infrastructure ecosystem of the DRC by enabling improved local Internet traffic exchange, reduced latency, enhanced network resilience, and broader interconnection opportunities for the national and regional Internet community.

Established in 2023, ACIX powered by DE-CIX is designed as a neutral Internet Exchange environment open to all licensed operators, Internet Service Providers (ISPs), Mobile Network Operators (MNOs), cloud providers, content providers, enterprises, financial institutions, academic networks, and international carriers operating in the DRC and the wider region.

ACIX is operated by DE-CIX on behalf of ‘Internet pour tous’, as part of the DE-CIX-as-a-Service (DaaS) program.

The NGO plays a central role in supporting the development and coordination of the ACIX initiative as a neutral ecosystem platform intended to promote inclusive interconnection and digital ecosystem growth across the country.

Through the IX, networks from equatorial Africa are able to exchange data with other networks at reduced latency (reaction time), improving the performance of content and applications, from education to Internet banking.

Digital opportunities for equatorial Africa

“ACIX is more than an Internet Exchange; it is foundational digital infrastructure for the future of Central Africa,” says Hussein Ibrahim, CEO of UNITED SA. “Strong digital ecosystems are built on strong interconnection. ACIX represents an important step toward a more connected and digitally empowered region, where data can remain local, networks become more resilient, and innovation can scale across borders.”

“As a neutral infrastructure provider, our role is to enable open interconnection and support the development of the broader digital ecosystem,” said Mohammed Bouhelal, managing director and director, Business Development of OADC Texaf DC. “Hosting ACIX within a carrier-neutral environment contributes to creating a trusted platform where all ecosystem participants can interconnect on equal terms.”

“DE-CIX is proud to support ‘Internet pour tous’ and UNITED S.A. in the expansion of ACIX and the development of a distributed, data center and carrier neutral Internet Exchange for the Democratic Republic of the Congo,” says Marco Brandstaetter, Global Program Manager for DE-CIX as a Service at DE-CIX. “The integration of OADC Texaf’s newly-built Kinshasa facility will enable additional networks to connect to the exchange and benefit from improved connectivity. ACIX is creating digital opportunities for the DRC and equatorial Africa by aggregating networks and enabling low latency and resilient local data exchange.”

ACIX powered by DE-CIX bridges countries to bring African networks closer together

Open Access Data Centres (OADC) is Africa’s fastest-growing data center company and operates a growing network of carrier-neutral data centers across the country, designed to support the development of open, interconnected digital ecosystems.

OADC Texaf provides a carrier-neutral and open-access hosting environment for the ACIX infrastructure within its Kinshasa data center campus.

Kinshasa, one of the most populous cities in Africa, is strategically located between the two most densely populated regions of the African continent.

Forming an interconnection bridge between the neighboring countries from the Atlantic on the west to the Indian Ocean on the east, ACIX acts as a connectivity hub for equatorial Africa, where networks can exchange data and house content with significantly improved performance.

DE-CIX’s DaaS program includes a set of services – such as installation, maintenance, provisioning, marketing and sales support – designed for data center operators or other third parties to create their own Internet Exchange and interconnection platform fully operated by DE-CIX.

Under this partnership, UniCloud Africa will host its enterprise-grade sovereign cloud and Artificial Intelligence (AI) infrastructure within OADC’s world-class, carrier-neutral facilities in Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Africa.

This collaboration establishes a robust, localised foundation for governments and enterprises to modernise their operations while ensuring absolute data residency and regulatory compliance.

Advancing the “One Cloud, One Africa” Vision

The partnership aligns with UniCloud Africa’s “One Cloud, One Africa” strategy, which seeks to eliminate the high-latency and compliance risks associated with offshore cloud providers.

By utilizing OADC’s Tier-III certified infrastructure, UniCloud Africa provides a high-performance environment for mission-critical workloads, supported by a contractual Tier-III certified uptime SLA.

“Our mission is to provide the definitive foundation for Africa’s digital and economic independence,” said Dr. Krish Ranganath, CEO of UniCloud Africa. “By hosting our sovereign infrastructure within OADC’s world-class facilities, we are ensuring that African data remains on African soil. This partnership empowers our clients with low-latency access, local currency billing, and the security of ISO-certified, in-country data management that is tailor-made for the continent’s unique requirements.”

A Multi-Market Digital Backbone

OADC’s extensive footprint provides UniCloud Africa with the scale needed to serve key economic hubs:

• Nigeria: Leveraging OADC Lagos’s campus to support the country’s booming fintech and enterprise sectors
• DRC: Providing much-needed local cloud capacity in Kinshasa to drive the nation’s digital acceleration
• South Africa: Utilising OADC’s expanded national footprint and distributed scale to deliver resilient, geographically separated primary and disaster recovery solutions

“We firmly believe that fully localised cloud infrastructure is critical for economic growth and Africa’s digital future,” added Dr Ayotunde Coker, CEO of OADC. “OADC is committed to providing the essential building blocks for a truly unified African digital ecosystem. Partnering with UniCloud Africa allows us to support a platform that is driving the next wave of innovation, from AI acceleration to cost-predictability.”

Empowering the Next Wave of Innovation

Beyond standard infrastructure, the partnership will support the deployment of UniCloud’s GPU-as-a-Service (GPUaaS), enabling local organisations to harness the power of AI, Machine Learning, and Big Data at scale.

With zero data egress fees and billing in local currencies, the collaboration removes the financial barriers often posed by global cloud giants.

The deal, which received a green light from South Africa’s Competition Commission on December 31, 2025, pushes OADC’s total operational capacity beyond the 25-megawatt (MW) mark.

The acquisition marks a significant pivot in the Southern African market: NTT DATA is divesting from asset-heavy physical infrastructure to focus on managed services, while OADC is doubling down on its “core-to-edge” strategy to support the continent’s booming cloud and AI workloads.

The ‘Sale and Leaseback’ Synergy

This isn’t just a change of ownership. Under a strategic agreement officially signed this week in Fourways, OADC will take over day-to-day operational management of the facilities, while NTT DATA remains the primary tenant, leasing the space back to serve its existing client base.

Operational Continuity: NTT DATA clients will experience no service interruptions; the transition is designed as a backend shift.

Geographic Diversity: The acquired facilities are strategically located across South Africa’s key economic hubs: Johannesburg (Bryanston & Parklands), Cape Town, Durban (Umhlanga), Bloemfontein, Gqeberha, and East London.

Strengthening the Pan-African ‘Digital Stack’

With a major presence already established in Nigeria (Lagos), the DRC (Kinshasa), and South Africa, OADC is positioning itself as the go-to partner for disaster recovery and primary colocation.

“We can provide clients with geographically separated primary and disaster recovery data centre infrastructure for their businesses,” said Dr. Ayotunde Coker, CEO of OADC. “This strengthens our market value proposition, positioning OADC as a critical partner in growing Africa’s digital economy.”

OADC’s Capacity Surge (Post-Acquisition)

Metric	Pre-Acquisition	Post-Acquisition (2026)	Growth Impact
National Footprint (SA)	~4 Hyperscale + 30 Edge	41+ Facilities	High-Density Coverage
Total Power Capacity	~15MW	25MW+	66% Capacity Increase
Key Service Hubs	Lagos, Kinshasa, JHB	Add: Bloemfontein, Gqeberha	Continental Leadership

Consolidation is the New Growth

The African data centre market is projected to reach $6.8 billion by 2030. As hyperscalers like Google and Microsoft increase their local cloud regions, “neutral” players like OADC are winning by providing the “white space” and power required to house these servers.

By acquiring NTT’s localized sites (previously operated by Internet Solutions), OADC isn’t just buying buildings; it’s buying interconnection.

Each of these seven sites represents a new “on-ramp” for African businesses to connect to the global digital economy with lower latency.

Notably, this deal excludes NTT’s Global Data Centre (Johannesburg 1), which NTT continues to operate independently.

The National Privacy Week Summit, organised by the NDPC, convened policymakers, regulators, technology providers, and industry stakeholders to promote data privacy awareness, strengthen compliance with the Nigeria Data Protection Act (NDPA), and advance conversations around data security, sovereignty, and responsible data governance.

As a sponsor of the event, OADC Lagos demonstrated its continued support for the Federal Government’s drive toward local data hosting and data domiciliation, which are increasingly critical to safeguarding sensitive information, enhancing regulatory compliance, and building trust in Nigeria’s digital economy.

Through its carrier-neutral, Tier III Design certified data centre in Lekki, Lagos, OADC provides secure, resilient, and compliant infrastructure that enables government institutions and private sector organisations to host and manage data locally while meeting international best practices.

Commenting on the engagement, Adesola Adesugba, country marketing manager, Open Access Data Centres Nigeria, said:

“We are proud to have supported the Nigeria Data Protection Commission through the National Privacy Week Summit and to stand alongside the government in advancing Nigeria’s digital transformation objectives. Strengthening local data hosting and domiciliation is fundamental to national data sovereignty, improved security, and sustainable digital growth, and OADC Lagos remains committed to enabling this future.”

OADC’s participation at National Privacy Week Summit underscores its role as a trusted digital infrastructure partner to government and enterprise, supporting secure cloud connectivity, regulatory compliance, and the long-term development of Nigeria’s digital ecosystem.

Open Access Data Centres is part of the WIOCC Group and operates open-access, world-class data centres across Africa, serving cloud providers, network operators, enterprises, and public sector institutions.

For more information about Open Access Data Centres Lagos, visit www.openaccessdc.net

Operating under the powerful mission of “One Cloud, One Africa”, this launch is powered by a strategic partnership with TouchNet, a leading Africa Technology Services provider whose extensive experience in delivering cutting-edge technology infrastructure across Africa, ensuring UniCloudAfrica’s platform is built on a robust, scalable foundation tailored to the continent’s unique needs.

It immediately provides African enterprises and governments with a world-class, highly certified, financially optimized, and fully compliant alternative to expensive, high-latency offshore cloud providers.

The announcement was made at a media briefing in Lagos, where Mr Ladi Okuneye, CEO of Unicloud Africa, declared “The platform is the foundation for Africa’s true Digital and Financial Independence”.

The Unicloud Africa Advantage: Performance, Compliance, and Cost Certainty

Unicloud Africa’s platform is engineered to solve the most critical pain points for African businesses by delivering on three core pillars:

1. Financial Sovereignty and Predictable Costs

We eliminate the financial uncertainty and hidden costs that hinder growth:

• Local Currency Billing: Enterprises can now pay for world-class cloud services in their local currency, eliminating the burden of foreign exchange (FX) volatility and unpredictable costs.
• Zero Data Egress Fees: We guarantee no data egress fees, ensuring predictable monthly billing and allowing businesses to retrieve their own data freely, a major cost differentiator.
• OpEx Model: The platform is delivered on a flexible, pay-per-use, OpEx model, freeing up business capital by removing the need for significant CapEx on IT infrastructure.

2. Certified Security and Guaranteed Resilience

Unicloud Africa is built on global standards of trust and compliance:

• Sovereign Data Compliance: All sensitive data, particularly for AI/ML and Big Data, is guaranteed to be hosted and processed 100% in-country. This is critical for regulatory adherence in finance, healthcare, and government across Africa.
• Maximum Uptime: Our architecture delivers two active-active availability zones and features a contractual 999% SLA on storage, providing the unmatched resilience required for mission-critical enterprise workloads.
• Global Certifications: The platform operates under the highest global standards, including ISO 27001 (Information Security) and ISO 22301 (Business Continuity).

3. AI Acceleration and Technical Leadership

“We are democratizing access to the computing power needed for the next wave of innovation”, the CEO said.

From use cases where financial services are enabled with real-time fraud detection to accelerating medical research through AI-driven analytics, UnicloudAfrica’s GPUaaS empowers organizations to harness AI at scale:

• GPU-as-a-Service (GPUaaS): High-performance, GPU-enabled cloud servers are available on demand, providing the specialized compute power needed to run complex AI models and large-scale applications.
• Developer Compatibility: Our services are compatible and provide a familiar feature set that aligns with leading global cloud platform environments, ensuring rapid adoption by local and international development teams.

“A Strategic Shift for African Competitiveness”

“For too long, African enterprises have been held back by the financial burden and compliance risks of offshore cloud platforms,” said Mr Ladi Okuneye, CEO of Unicloud Africa.

“This is a strategic shift. We are providing world-class infrastructure, backed by local currency billing, zero egress fees, and the peace of mind of ISO-certified, in-country data management. Unicloud Africa is the definitive foundation for Africa’s true digital and financial independence.“

“By partnering with Unicloud Africa, TouchNet is directly accelerating Africa’s digital transformation. We are delivering secure, scalable, and locally optimized AI Cloud infrastructure that empowers businesses and governments to modernize operations, drive innovation, and secure their data locally. This platform is a testament to our commitment to a connected and sovereign Africa”, said Mr Charly Bahous CEO of TouchNet.

Dr Ayotunde Coker, CEO of OADC also mentioned

”We firmly believe that fully localised cloud infrastructure is critical for economic growth and Africa’s digital future. This is why OADC is fully committed to collaborating with and providing all needed support to partners like UniCloud Africa, who are key to realizing a truly unified African digital ecosystem.”

In this space, companies like MainOne (now Equinix), Rack Centre, and WIOCC through its Open Access Data Centres (OADC), are investing heavily to strengthen Nigeria’s digital backbone. 

But which of them is best positioned to ensure growth across the Nigerian startups sector?

MainOne (Equinix): The Global Reach & Certification Anchor

MainOne has leveraged its submarine cable system, fibre optic network, and its acquisition by Equinix to offer reach and certified reliability. Its data centre arm, MDXi, holds the Uptime Institute Tier III Constructed Facility certification (TCCF), among several other certifications (PCI-DSS, SAP Infrastructure Services, ISO 27001 & 9001). 

Its Network Connect and Cloud Connect services link local branches or clouds with global infrastructure. For example, by routing traffic via its submarine cable and leveraging Equinix Fabric, it offers predictable performance and connectivity from Lagos to key global hubs.

Power reliability, a common pain point in Nigeria, is one of MainOne’s standout strengths. Its Lagos data centre integrates multiple power redundancies, utility partnerships, and high-capacity generators to maintain near-continuous uptime. That’s essential for startups whose businesses can’t afford downtime.

Still, MainOne’s premium-grade services usually come at higher prices. For small or growing startups, that might make it more suitable at later stages of expansion rather than at the beginning.

So, MainOne offers scale, high certifications, international interconnect, and relatively lower risk from interruptions.

Rack Centre: The Nimble, Neutral & Efficiency-Driven Option

Rack Centre carved its reputation as Nigeria’s first carrier-neutral Tier III certified data centre. Unlike most competitors, it is not owned by any telecom or internet provider, which gives clients the flexibility to interconnect with over 70 different carriers and ISPs. That neutrality is one of its biggest competitive edges.

Its location in Oregun, Lagos, provides direct access to all the major undersea cables serving Nigeria, including WACS, MainOne, Glo-1, SAT-3 and ACE. The result is low latency, strong redundancy, and smooth interconnection between local networks.

Rack Centre’s new LGS2 facility represents a huge step forward. The 12MW hyperscale and AI-ready centre is designed for exceptional energy efficiency and sustainability, with advanced cooling systems and a lower Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) ratio. This reduces operational costs and aligns with global sustainability standards, an important factor for modern tech companies.

Its approach appeals particularly to startups seeking flexibility, local performance, and freedom from vendor lock-ins. However, Rack Centre’s challenge is scale: it has a solid local presence but lacks the global integration that Equinix offers through MainOne.

One of its strongest propositions is neutrality: Rack Centre is not owned by a telco, ISP or cloud provider; it does not compete with its tenants; therefore, there is less risk of vendor lock-in or conflict. 

For startups, especially those scaling fast, Rack Centre tends to offer strong locality benefits: low latency within Nigeria, strong peering via IXPN, predictable interconnects, and usually more flexible arrangements for rack space or interconnection.

WIOCC / OADC: The Pan-African Connector, Big Capacity Incoming

WIOCC, via its Open Access Data Centres (OADC) arm, is scaling aggressively. Its strategy is open access, hyperscale capacity, and linking regional networks. 

OADC’s expansion plan is one of the biggest in the sector. The company has committed over $240 million to expand its Lagos data centre to 24 megawatts by 2027, starting with a 12MW first phase. The facility is designed to support cloud providers, hyperscale clients, and growing tech firms that need capacity and cross-border connectivity.

WIOCC also launched OAfabric, its cloud interconnection platform, which allows businesses to connect directly to international cloud services through a simplified interface. Combined with its wide fibre and submarine network, it aims to provide both affordability and regional reach.

That said, OADC’s infrastructure in Nigeria is still relatively new, with much of its full capacity under development. The scale and potential are enormous, but the market will need to see consistent delivery over time.

Its strength is scale (once the full capacity is live), strong peering potential across borders, and an open access model that benefits ISPs, cloud providers and telcos who need wholesale connectivity.

Comparing Strengths and Trade-offs

Each company brings something unique to Nigeria’s digital economy. MainOne is on top when it comes to global integration and enterprise-grade reliability, backed by Equinix’s global standards. For Rack Centre, it’s in neutrality, local performance, and energy efficiency, making it ideal for startups prioritising flexibility and cost control. WIOCC, meanwhile, is building a network that could redefine cross-border connectivity and scale for Africa’s data economy once fully realised.

In terms of reliability, both MainOne and Rack Centre already provide strong uptime backed by Tier III certifications. MainOne’s international connectivity gives it an advantage for startups with global vision. Rack Centre provides a more accessible, locally optimised alternative for startups that value independence and direct peering with multiple providers. WIOCC is the long-term investment, its pan-African fibre network and future 24MW capacity could make it the infrastructure giant to watch.

What I Think Startups Should Care About Most

If I were advising a startup today, I would tell them:

• Get your foundation right: data sovereignty, uptime, and latency are not optional. Pick a provider with strong certifications and multiple power/fibre redundancy.
• Think about the cost-to-scale: what looks affordable at 10 racks may be expensive at 100. Check how interconnect charges, cross-connects, and peering fees scale.
• Be wary of lock-in. Providers that are carrier-neutral and open access give more flexibility to mix and match cloud, network, and hosting providers.
• Monitor sustainability and total cost of ownership. Facilities that waste energy or have unreliable back-up power may cost more when things go wrong.

Who’s Best Positioned?

Each of these providers has a part. If I had to pick:

• For startups already serving international customers or aiming to scale globally, MainOne/Equinix remains ahead because of its global interconnection, submarine cable reach, and certifications.
• For startups focused on Nigeria or nearby countries and needing lower latency, predictable interconnect and flexible arrangements, Rack Centre looks like a strong option.
• For companies needing wholesale capacity, cross-border reach, or anticipating rapid growth in cloud usage, WIOCC/OADC will likely pull ahead once their full capacity is available and stable.

In short: there is no single perfect choice. But the competition among these three is powerful for our ecosystem. Startups will benefit as they force better reliability, lower prices, and greater innovation. And I’m positive the fate of Nigerian startups looks brighter if we build this backbone well.

On stage sat a powerhouse panel: Meta, Open Access Data Centres, Airtel Africa, Digital Realty, Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria (IXPN), and TeleGeography, all with one mission: to unlock faster, more reliable content delivery for millions of Nigerians.

The session, aptly titled “Content at the Edge: Unlocking Faster and More Reliable Experiences”, followed a keynote by Meta’s Michelle Opiyo, who spotlighted the company’s growing edge infrastructure across Africa. From there, the discussion unraveled into an honest look at Nigeria’s unique challenges—and its immense opportunities.

Nigeria’s Demographic Advantage

Meta’s Ben Ryall painted the big picture: “Nigeria is Africa’s largest country by population, and its youth are hungry for content. The split between enterprise demand and young content-driven consumers is a goldmine for local CDNs and tailored strategies.”

The Bottlenecks: Pricing and Distribution

But the road isn’t smooth. IXPN’s Muhammed Rudman recalled early conversations with Netflix: “Back in 2007, they didn’t see the ROI. Today, subsea cables have brought traffic to Lagos, but outside the city, costs are still too high.”

In Lagos, bandwidth can be as cheap as $1 per Mbps, but beyond the city limits, the price jumps to around $30. For Digital Realty’s Ikechukwu Nnamani, this mismatch is a Catch-22: “The market won’t mature without investment, but investors want to see maturity first.”

Rethinking Models: From Sachets to Ecosystems

Dr. Ayotunde Coker, CEO of Open Access Data Centres, challenged the industry to embrace Africa’s informal economy with “sachet pricing”, daily or weekly data access.

He also noted that colocation facilities are evolving: “We’re building ecosystems where creators, carriers, and CDNs meet, not just renting out power and space.”

Fiber Cuts and the Latency Dilemma

Still, Nigeria’s fragile infrastructure looms large. In just 18 months, 13,000 fibre cuts were recorded, according to data shared at the forum.

MTN already runs 25,000km of fibre, while government plans to push that to 90,000km, but more fibre also means more exposure to disruption.

Rudman warned that Lagos alone cannot bear Nigeria’s digital load: “If your game downloads are only cached in Lagos, users in Kano will still suffer. We have to go inward.”

Expanding the Edge

Meta is already taking that advice to heart. Beyond its Lagos Point of Presence (PoP), the company is building a second PoP in Port Harcourt to serve the South-South. IXPN, too, is preparing to expand interconnection deeper into the regions, urging mobile operators to peer beyond Lagos.

A Call for Collaboration

The session closed on a note of unity. The panelists agreed: infrastructure is coming, but it won’t be enough without coordinated investment, ecosystem collaboration, and regulatory support.

“This is more than fibre and data centres,” Nnamani concluded. “This is about bringing content closer to the people. The hyperscalers, the platforms, the carriers, it’s time for all of us to step up together.”

The 15th edition of AfPIF ended with optimism, but also a challenge: Nigeria’s digital future won’t be built by one player alone. The edge must be conquered, together.

And for businesses, this gap means higher expenses, slower access to cloud services and limited ability to scale competitively.

Today, Open Access Data Centres (OADC), a WIOCC Group company, launched Open Access Fabric (OAfabric) in Nigeria (OADC Lagos) and the Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC (OADC Texaf – Kinshasa), to leapfrog these limitations and position Nigeria as Africa’s digital nerve centre.

With over 107 million internet users, Nigeria represents the continent’s largest digital market, but enterprises have long had challenges with high latency, expensive transit, and inconsistent local content access. 

The game-changing interconnection platform, OAfabric directly addresses these challenges, providing secure, low-latency connections, direct peering with global cloud providers, and integration with leading African IXPs, including IXPN in Nigeria and KINIX in the DRC.

Speaking at the launch, Dr Ayotunde Coker, chief executive officer of OADC, said “We designed OAfabric around the real challenges African businesses face. It is about solving problems – reducing the cost to compute, improving performance, unlocking access to cloud and content, and creating an environment where companies can scale with confidence while accelerating time to market.”

OAfabric is engineered to scale from 1Gbps to 100Gbps, supporting hybrid colocation architectures, AI workloads, and data-intensive applications. Traditionally, enterprises had to rely on the open internet, risking security breaches and inconsistent performance. Coker highlighted the platform’s protective advantage:

“Without OAfabric, if you want to go to the cloud, you basically have to go to the open internet. All of us understand the disadvantages of pushing your content into the open internet. Companies now have to start building layers of security, all the years of security. 

“But with OAfabric, it is a secured connection, structural cable connection from here all the way into the cloud environment, irrespective of where you are. So you are guaranteed that literally, for someone to hack, he has to use a source and come back in. It’s extremely secure connectivity.”

Resilient, Reliable, and Rapid

The platform’s resilience was demonstrated last year during a subsea cable disruption. OADC restored 2 terabytes of connectivity within 48 hours, a project that would normally take three months, stressing the network’s ability to maintain Africa’s digital backbone under extreme pressure.

Latency is dramatically reduced, a huge factor for enterprises in fintech, cloud services, and AI. Coker explained:

“We deliver a significant, well-reliable, low-latency connection. Latency between here and points in Europe, for instance, is significantly reduced. You can interconnect into Amsterdam, the UK, Marseille. We define with cloud providers exactly where we want to meet them and cross-connect very neatly, and it has a significant result on latency.”

Since 2018, OADC has expanded strategically across the continent. The Lagos data centre in Lekki currently operates at 2 megawatts, with plans to scale to 24 megawatts. 

Facilities in Kinshasa and four South African cities—Durban, Johannesburg, and Cape Town—serve as interconnection points for global subsea cables including Google Aquiano and 2Africa, creating a robust pan-African network.

Coker elaborated that “OAfabric gives us a more efficient way of delivering growth, not just in one direction, but with the capability to reverse the direction as we have more internet exchanges here, localising data. As we bring more actual cloud on-ramps into the country, we build the infrastructure for those hyperscale ramps to come here, and that’s what we’re doing.”

OAfabric aligns with Nigeria’s mega cloud policy, ensuring sensitive data remains within national borders while empowering local cloud providers to compete with international hyperscalers. It also opens the Nigerian market to foreign investment, enabling cloud edge zones and disaster recovery zones to be deployed with speed and confidence.

Head of Converged Open and Digital Infrastructure, OADC Africa, Obinna Adumike, explained the reach of OAfabric beyond Nigeria and DRC:

“OAfabric is big, and it’s here. We have a very robust connectivity network, and the biggest advantage of that is the fact that WIOCC network can connect you to any country in the world, but most especially the closest continents that Africa impacts on; Africa, Europe, America, and then within the continent, East Africa, Southern Africa and all of that. These are the regions that most of our cloud users either connect to, send, or collect traffic.”

Simplifying Complexity for Enterprises

For businesses, OAfabric transforms previously complex digital operations into seamless, manageable workflows. Coker expatiated this:

“Think of OAfabric as a box in a data centre. You connect to it, choose your pipe size—like deciding between a two-lane or four-lane highway—and your data flows efficiently to the cloud. The faster and more reliable the connection, the better the user experience.”

“OAfabric is not just infrastructure; it represents a shift in what is possible for Africa’s digital economy,” added Dr Coker. “By removing barriers and enabling seamless, high-performance peering between key ecosystems, including local and global Internet Exchange Points (IXPs), content providers, cloud platforms and enterprises, it provides the frictionless interconnection needed to access digital services more efficiently.”

With OAfabric live in Nigeria and the DRC, OADC is creating a resilient, secure, and scalable pan-African digital ecosystem, empowering enterprises, accelerating innovation, and defining a new era of African digital sovereignty.

According to Muhammed Rudman, IXPN’s CEO, the forum provides a valuable platform for collaboration, interaction, and sharing IXPN milestones with its members.

He emphasized the organization’s dedication to building a stronger internet exchange ecosystem and advancing Nigeria’s digital landscape through efficient interconnectivity, robust collaborations, and the seamless exchange of ideas.

“IXPN plays a pivotal role in ensuring fast, reliable, and secure internet exchange services for organizations across the country. Thus, this forum offers an important opportunity to engage with our valued customers, address challenges, celebrate our successes, and envision a brighter digital future for Nigeria,” said Rudman.”

Highlighting key milestones achieved in 2024, Rudman noted IXPN’s recognition as a MANRS-compliant Internet Exchange Point, demonstrating its commitment to secure and reliable Internet routing.

He also cited multiple link upgrades between key Points of Presence (PoPs), including Digital Realty (Medallion) to Equinix (MDXi), Rack Centre, and ADC, significantly increasing capacity.

Another key achievement was the deployment of Microsoft Connected Cache to reduce latency and optimize bandwidth utilization for Microsoft static content.

Looking ahead to 2025, IXPN ‘s planned projects and initiatives include establishing additional exchange points in other states, attracting more content providers to the country, setting up CDNs and caches in regional IXPN PoPs, offering VLAN services within Lagos and supporting remote peering, and upgrading core devices and main links.

IXPN’s core functions include keeping Nigerian internet traffic local, reducing costs associated with accessing local content, enhancing local connectivity, improving the overall internet experience, promoting local content creation, and serving as a centralized launch point for services.

As of today, the organization currently boasts 125 members, seven PoPs in Lagos (ICNL, Medallion, Rack Centre, MDXi, ADC, OADC & Cloud Exchange), and additional PoPs in six other cities: Abuja, Port Harcourt, Kano, Enugu, Delta, and Gombe.

IXPN also manages a peak aggregate traffic of 900 Gbps.