Emma Okonji

MTN Nigeria will today launch Phase 1 of its Tier III Data Centre and local cloud located in Ikeja, with a total – expandable – IT capacity load of 4.5 megawatts.

According to MTN, the data centre infrastructure cost $100 million, while the local cloud infrastructure cost $20 million, totalling $120 million.

Known as Sifiso Dabengwa Data Centre, the centre would be Nigeria’s largest pre-fabricated modular data, with 96 pre-fabricated containers, and a total rack capacity of about 1,500, which is fully modular in power and cooling, and it occupies three floors.

Speaking about the planned launch of the data centre during a press conference in Lagos yesterday, Chief Executive Officer, MTN Nigeria, Dr. Karl Toriola, said the data centre would bring a lot of transformation to the Nigeria technology ecosystem, since its services will be offered through pay-as-you-use, and it would be priced in Naira.

Toriola said, “With the data centre launch, MTN is at the forefront of Nigeria’s digital space, and ready to drive Artificial Intelligence (AI) needs across the country, as we expand the capacity of the data centre facility.

“In addition to that, the data centre will enhance Nigeria’s data sovereignty and ensure that local data are hosted in Nigeria and that the data are also protected from exposure and attacks.

“MTN is working closely with the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) to ensure compliance with data policy.”

Speaking on the advantages of the data centre to Nigerian businesses, both large and small enterprises, Toriola said it would reduce cost of doing business, since businesses would be paying for the services in Naira.

According to him, the data centre will provide cost-effective solutions to businesses that will enable them to host their data in Nigeria, boost quality of service delivery, and comply with the NDPC policy on data sovereignty.   

on the cost element, Chief Enterprise Business Officer, MTN Nigeria, Lynda Saint-Nwafor, said, “It cost MTN the sum of $100 million for the Phase 1 data centre infrastructure, with additional $20 million for the cloud infrastructure.”

According to Saint-Nwafor, the data centre will reduce latency, enhance customers’ experience in data computing and storage, especially during the on-boarding process.

She stated, “The MTN Data Centre will offer self-orchestration data platform that will allow users to log into the cloud service from any part of the world to develop solutions.”

Saint-Nwafor added that the MTN Cloud offered more and easily accessible services than those offered by hyperscalers, like Google, Amazon Wireless, and Microsoft Azure.

Senior Consultant, MTN Enterprise Solutions, Ifeanyi Otudor, explained that the data centre was built to support everything, right from the high data traffic in the fintech space, to the e-government platforms today and in the future.

Otudor said, “The data centre effectively puts MTN in the position to address the co-location needs of the enterprise business, the different businesses, including government entities as well, that are looking to offload that responsibility to experts like us over the period.

“In addition to that, we also have about 2.5 MB and a 3.15 MB transformer for the grid system, in addition to standby generators to power the data centre.”

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