Africa’s data center landscape is shifting from fragmented, small-scale deployments to a continent-wide expansion. Between 2025 and 2030, capacity demand is expected to surge, driven by cloud adoption, generative AI workloads, and the rapid growth of digital services.
At the forefront of this momentum are Nigeria in West Africa and Egypt in North Africa. Both markets are attracting significant investment, carrier-neutral facilities, and growing interest from hyperscalers, even as developers and governments grapple with challenges around power, connectivity, and skills.
Nigeria: West Africa’s gateway to scale
Nigeria’s data center market has moved from concept to execution. Powered by a large mobile-first population, a vibrant startup ecosystem, and a fast-growing digital economy, Lagos has emerged as the country’s primary hub for colocation and hyperscale facilities.
The market is projected to grow from an estimated 136.7 MW in 2025 to 279.4 MW by 2030, representing a 15% CAGR. Recent developments include Equinix’s LG2.3 expansion in Lagos, MTN Nigeria’s planned 1,500-rack facility, and new 38 MW and 24 MW campuses under construction.
Growth, however, is constrained by energy realities. Nigeria’s national grid delivers roughly 6,000 MW against a demand estimated at over 100,000 MW. As a result, data centers rely heavily on diesel and gas-based backup generation, with limited renewable integration despite efficiency gains.
Most facilities remain concentrated in Lagos due to submarine cable access and cost dynamics. At the same time, rising demand from banks, enterprises, telcos, and government platforms for low-latency, sovereign hosting is reshaping the market. Developers are responding with multi-purpose campuses offering carrier neutrality, cloud on-ramps, and edge infrastructure tailored for fintech, content delivery, and e-commerce growth.
Industry studies consistently rank Nigeria among the fastest-growing data center markets on the continent through 2030.
Egypt: The North African anchor
Egypt’s strategic geography, large domestic market, and improving policy environment have positioned it as a prime destination for hyperscale-ready infrastructure. Cairo and the Nile Delta corridor provide fiber routes to Europe and the Middle East, reinforcing Egypt’s role as a regional connectivity bridge.
By mid-2025, Egypt had 15 operational submarine cables, with three more under construction and a target of 18 by year-end. The data center market is projected to grow from USD 278 million in 2024 to USD 694 million by 2030.
Hyperscale and colocation demand is being driven by new entrants such as Africa Data Centers and Khazna Data Centers, supported by evolving regulations, including 15-year Public Data Center Provider licenses designed to attract foreign investment.
Egypt’s emergence as a consolidated hub matters beyond its borders. A Cairo-centered ecosystem offers new routing options and resilience for MENA traffic, providing an alternative to Western European cloud regions and submarine routes. For pan-African architects, Egypt serves both as a distribution node and an AI-scale home market.
Demand drivers and the AI inflection point
Two forces are shaping the boom. First, enterprise cloud migration, digital payments, and streaming growth require regional capacity to meet latency and data sovereignty needs. Second, AI adoption—from localized language models to enterprise inference workloads—is accelerating demand for dense, scalable compute.
McKinsey estimates that Africa will require USD 10–20 billion in new data center investment to remain globally competitive, unlocking a potential USD 20–30 billion revenue pool across the value chain by 2030. AI-driven demand alone could increase capacity requirements by 3.5 to 5.5 times, pushing installed capacity to 1.5–2.2 GW within the decade.
Infrastructure and policy hurdles
Power availability and grid stability remain the biggest barriers. Many projects rely on hybrid energy setups combining grid supply, on-site generation, and renewables. By 2025, analysts had already flagged power constraints as a major bottleneck across EMEA.
Other obstacles include slow permitting, land acquisition challenges, high import costs for specialized equipment, and shortages of skilled technicians trained in modern data center operations.
Addressing these issues will require deeper public–private collaboration and innovative financing models.
Local partnerships and the path forward
The next five years will be decisive. By simplifying regulation, strengthening grid infrastructure, and accelerating green energy adoption, Nigeria and Egypt can establish themselves as Africa’s primary data center hubs.
For operators and cloud providers, success will depend on delivering reliable, sovereign, and energy-conscious capacity that supports enterprise needs and AI-scale workloads.
Africa’s data center expansion will not be defined by megawatts alone, but by how effectively power, policy, and partnerships converge. Nigeria and Egypt are setting the pace, reshaping the continent’s digital backbone and laying the foundation for AI-driven growth.
