- Danbatta noted that Africa has recently assumed a new frontier and compelling destination for global Big Tech players
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has expressed that the nation is now well-equipped to capture a significant portion of the global data centre market, which is valued in the multi-billion dollar range.
Prof Umar Danbatta, the Executive Vice Chairman of the Commission, made this assertion on Thursday in Lagos during the Telecoms Sector Sustainability Forum organized by Business Remarks.
He emphasized that Nigeria’s provision of a dependable and secure environment for service delivery, combined with a well-structured policy and regulatory framework, positions the country as an appealing destination for increased investments in data centre services and operations.
Furthermore, he highlighted the potential impact of such investments on employment, envisioning growth in job opportunities related to the construction, operation, and maintenance of these data centres.
Danbatta noted that Africa has recently assumed a new frontier and compelling destination for global Big Tech players.
These, he said, include Google’s Equiano subsea fibre cable spanning 15,000 km from Portugal to South Africa with strategic landing points in Nigeria and Namibia and expected to increase connectivity more than five-fold within Nigeria while creating an expected 1.6m jobs and Meta’s 2Africa subsea cable scheduled for launch next year and which connects 16 African countries.
Danbatta, who was represented by the Head, of Tariff Administration, NCC, Dr. Sunday Atu, and spoke on the theme “Mainstreaming Data Centres in the Nigerian Digital Economy” said the Federal Government of Nigeria has taken laudable steps to encourage and support data centres services in the country in its drive to ensure data sovereignty.
“This is encapsulated in the National Digital Economy Policy Strategy (NDEPS) Pillar number 3 on Solid Infrastructure which states that; The Government will Promote the Development and Deployment of robust and scalable data center infrastructure. It therefore goes to show that these centres and their potential to attract foreign investment remain massive.
“The NCC has long recognized the imperatives around the sharing of critical resources within the telecoms industry, particularly in relation to recent engagements on regional roaming with the ECOWAS. This is underscored by the Commission’s recent guidelines and framework, leading to the emergence of collocation and infrastructure-sharing entities such as tower companies that rest on this premise. The Commission has also concluded its framework, and further facilitated the test run on national roaming and active infrastructure sharing to further galvanize efficient roll out through well-coordinated network optimization and expansion strategies,” he said.
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