Pan-African data center firm Open Access data centres(OADC) is set to spend $240 million on a 24MW data center in Lagos, Nigeria. Though the company has yet to announce the development officially, its CEO, Dr. Ayotunde Coker, told local reporters at an event last week that the project would be built in two stages, with the first 12MW set to come online in the next 18 months. In comments reported by Leadership, Coker said: “This project is a game-changer for Nigeria’s digital economy. With hyperscale capacity and AI-readiness our Lagos facility will be one of the largest and most advanced in West Africa.
“It will set new benchmarks for scalability, resilience, and efficiency, ensuring that Nigeria remains at the forefront of Africa’s data center revolution.”According to the report, the data center will be funded through a mix of equity and debt, with OADC working with financial institutions such as the International Finance Corporation and Proparco. The company is also said to have secured a sustainability-linked loan. It will draw power from Nigeria’s grid, though the company is said to also be looking at other options such as natural gas and renewable energy sources.
“Renewable energy integration is also a key focus,” said Coker. “While on-site solar generation is limited due to space constraints, OADC is evaluating power wheeling options to source hydroelectric and solar power from external locations.”
DCD has approached OADC for more details of the plan.
Owned by African wholesale network firm WIOCC, OADC operates six hyperscale data centers and more than 30 Edge sites in South Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Nigeria. Its flagship data center in the Lekki area of Lagos opened in 2022.WIOCC Group subsidiary Open Access Data Centres (OADC) reportedly plans to invest up to US$240 million to expand the capacity of its new data center in Lagos from 1.5MW to 24MW by 2027. According to Nigerian newspaper Punch, the Tier-III data center in Lagos – which was launched at the end of 2022 – will be expanded in two phases of 12MW each as part of OADC’s current US$500 million investment plan announced in 2021 to build out data center infrastructure across Africa.
At a press conference last week, OADC CEO Ayotunde Coker said the Lagos facility expansion would cost up to US$240 million, based on the calculation of US$10 million per MW of IT load capacity, the report said. The first phase is scheduled to be completed within 18 months, although Coker cautioned that it could take longer, as “projects like this typically take more than two years due to the complexity of design and execution,” the report said. Coker added that OADC has secured international finance partners to back the project, including the International Finance Corporation and Proparco, a development finance subsidiary of the Agence Française de Développement Group.
OADC has also secured a sustainability-linked loan tied to WIOCC’s commitment to improving the energy efficiency of its data centres, as well as obtaining the EDGE (Excellence in Design for Greater Efficiencies) green building certification, the report said. Apart from its data centre in Nigeria, OADC also owns data centres in the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Africa.
