Nigeria’s telecom regulator and industry leaders have called for urgent collaboration to build Africa’s artificial intelligence infrastructure, warning that the continent risks falling behind global powers investing heavily in compute capacity, cloud infrastructure and advanced chips.
The concerns were raised at a high-level virtual forum organised by Africa Hyperscalers, which brought together regulators, operators, cloud providers, data-centre companies and AI experts to discuss what Africa must build to compete in an AI-driven economy.
Nigerian Communications Commission CEO, Dr Aminu Maida, said AI has become a basic infrastructure requirement, just like roads and power. He warned that countries that fail to build local compute, data and algorithmic capability will be relegated to consuming foreign innovation.
Africa currently has about 210 data centres, with 46 per cent concentrated in four markets including Nigeria, which has just 21 active centres. Analysts project that Nigeria needs to quadruple its data-centre capacity by 2030 to meet rising digital demand.
Industry leaders at the forum stressed the need for reliable energy, stronger connectivity, locally governed data, talent development and coordinated investment. Speakers warned that no single company or government can build AI infrastructure alone, calling for an ecosystem partnership among operators, hyperscalers, regulators and investors.
The event highlighted widespread agreement that Africa must accelerate investment in data centres, cloud services, power infrastructure and AI skills to avoid deepening the global compute divide.
