By Boluwatife Oshadiya | October 28, 2026
Key Points
- MTN Group plans to build a large data centre in Nigeria to support digital sovereignty and the secure handling of sensitive information
- CEO Ralph Mupita identifies fibre connectivity as a major investment priority over the next five to 10 years
- MTN calls for stronger protection of telecommunications infrastructure and harmonised digital governance frameworks across Africa
Main Story
MTN Group plans to build a large data centre in Nigeria as part of efforts to support the country’s digital sovereignty and growing demand for secure digital infrastructure, President and Chief Executive Officer Ralph Mupita has said.
Mupita disclosed the plan on Wednesday in Lagos during an engagement with journalists under MTN Nigeria’s Media Innovation Programme. He said the proposed facility would help meet Nigeria’s sovereign digital infrastructure needs, although he did not disclose its location, cost, capacity or construction timeline.
“We have an aspiration to build a large data centre in Nigeria so that we can meet the sovereign needs of Nigeria,” Mupita said.
He explained that countries were increasingly concerned about where sensitive information was stored and processed, particularly data relating to banking, healthcare, national security and other critical services.
Mupita said future digital infrastructure would likely combine locally hosted systems for sensitive workloads with public cloud services for less sensitive activities. He added that MTN would assess investment opportunities market by market, working with national authorities to determine local requirements.
Beyond data centres, the group identified fibre connectivity as a priority for Nigeria over the next five to 10 years, with greater emphasis on connecting homes and businesses.
“We think the next five to 10 years in Nigeria is the connected home,” Mupita said.
He argued that fibre networks could better support high-capacity household internet use, including remote work, education and gaming, while mobile networks faced capacity constraints when delivering unlimited data services.
Mupita also highlighted the economic impact of damage to fibre-optic cables, saying the consequences extended beyond repair costs to businesses and customers relying on telecommunications infrastructure. He commended the Nigerian Communications Commission and other authorities for recognising fibre networks as critical national infrastructure.
“The cost to the economy more broadly will be material,” he said.
He also called for greater harmonisation of data privacy, cross-border data transportation and e-commerce frameworks across African countries to strengthen intra-African trade and support a more integrated digital economy.
What’s Being Said
Mupita’s statements position data sovereignty, fibre connectivity and infrastructure protection as key areas for MTN’s planned investment and policy engagement.
“I anticipate that the world is going to be a hybrid of digital sovereignty around critical and sensitive workloads, and then less sensitive workloads can go into the public cloud,” Ralph Mupita, President and Chief Executive Officer, MTN Group.
The supplied material contains no independent analyst response or separate Nigerian government comment on the proposed data centre.
What’s Next
- Project details: MTN has yet to disclose the proposed data centre’s investment value, location, capacity or construction schedule in the supplied material.
- Fibre investment: Mupita identified the next five to 10 years as a priority period for expanding fibre connectivity to Nigerian homes and businesses.
- Regional digital policy: Mupita called for African governments to work towards more harmonised rules covering data privacy, cross-border data movement and e-commerce; no specific timetable was provided.
The Bottom Line:
MTN’s proposed data centre signals an ambition to play a larger role in Nigeria’s digital infrastructure, but the project’s practical significance will depend on its eventual scale, investment commitments and delivery timeline. Fibre expansion and infrastructure protection remain equally important to the reliability and reach of the country’s digital economy.
