COUNTRY FOCUS : NIGERIA
Project roundup : applications
Multinational telecommunications company Angola Cables operates in the wholesale market , providing connectivity , IT solutions and services , as well as international data circuit capacity and IP transit via owned , high-capacity submarine cables , including SACS , Monet , and WACS .
As the most connected network operator in Africa , its low-latency direct routings from West Africa to the US and South America , and from West Africa to London provide an advantage to partners .
Its presence across a number of Nigerian IP hubs such as Lekki , WACS CLS , Medallion DC , Rack Centre and others , and connections across Africa via the Djoliba network , means partners have access to some of the most advanced digital infrastructure on the continent .
In March this year , Airtel Africa , a provider of telecommunications and mobile money services with a presence in 14 countries across Africa , has broken ground on its first data centre in Lagos .
Nxtra by Airtel is set to be one of the largest networks of data centres in Africa , with high-capacity data centres in major cities located strategically across Airtel Africa ’ s footprint , complementing its existing edge sites . This development underscores the company ’ s commitment to meeting the continent ’ s data management needs by providing trusted and sustainable data centre capacity to serve the fast-growing African digital economy .
The Nxtra by Airtel data centre in Lagos will deliver 38 megawatts of total power and host high density racks that integrate the latest best practice construction to achieve 1.3 power usage effectiveness . It is expected to be live by the first quarter of 2026 .
The Lagos data centre facility will be the first of five hyperscale data centres to be developed by Airtel Africa on the continent . Combined , these data centres will offer a robust 180-megawatt capacity , distributed across 13 major data centre and over 48 edge data centres . Nxtra is also enabling customers meet data sovereignty requirements while at the same time enabling more local cloud services to be offered in the countries where Airtel Africa operates .
IDEMIA Smart Identity has renewed its commitment to Nigeria ’ s National Identity Management Commission , NIMC by implementing an upgrade of the entire biometric identification system , which will accommodate 250 million records . This project , supported by the World Bank through its ID4D initiative , will ensure that each citizen ’ s identity in the civil database remains unique .
NIMC ’ s biometric system will become the most advanced biometric system in the world , comparable only with Aadhaar in India . The powerful biometric matching system will be able to handle 1 million 1:1 and 1 : N identity verification searches per day . The initial system was designed to support 100 million records but has already reached around 90 million records and requires this extension to address the whole Nigerian population .
In addition , the system upgrade is going to allow NIMC to be compliant with OSIA , an open standard set of interfaces APIs that enables seamless connectivity between all components of the identity management ecosystem .
Ericsson and MTN Group have agreed to modernise the core network of MTN ’ s affiliates in Nigeria over five years in line with MTN Group ’ s MTN Unified Cloud Acceleration MUNA principles and objectives . The agreement was concluded , where the companies agreed on key strategic priorities and collaborations , underscoring both companies ’ shared vision and commitment to fortify their long-term partnership .
Building on existing partnerships for cloud-native core network deployment with Ericsson in both countries , the modernisation will ensure the readiness of MTN Nigeria ’ s and MTN South Africa ’ s network infrastructures to enable 5G standalone in the future .
Ericsson ’ s will power the modernised core networks cloud-native dual-mode 5G Core , and will enable MTN Group to achieve its objectives in Nigeria of delivering innovative solutions for both consumers and enterprises in Africa .
The network upgrade is geared towards enhancing the core network . When completed , it will further accelerate broadband penetration in alignment with the Federal Government ’ s Broadband plan . This expansion is also in line with strategic priorities – building the largest and most valuable platforms , driving industryleading connectivity operations , creating shared value and accelerating portfolio transformation . p
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