Nigeria’s top digital infrastructure player MainOn is set to “aggressively” expand its data centre footprint in the Lagos region through its colocation subsidiary MDXi.

The operator said it plans to build a second data centre in Lekki, dubbed Lekki II. Lekki is located to the south-east of Lagos city, has an area of 755 sqKm and has been for the last decade heavily developed with mega-projects including a new $1.5 billon deep seaport till under construction, motorways, and new homes.

The new MDXi data centre is expected to launch in Q1 2022 to service not only national enterprises but also “global organisations interested in establishing a presence in West Africa”.

Gbenga Adegbiji, chief operating officer for MDXi, said: “The Lekki II Data Center will continue to deliver the same excellent services that our customers across West Africa have come to expect from MDXi.”

MDXi operates today 5MW of data centre, with its last opening having occurred in June, when the company cut the ribbon on a new 600-rack data centre in the capital of neighbouring Ghana.

In addition to Nigeria and Ghana, the company also runs a 100-rack facility in Abidjan, Cote D‘Ivoire.

The West Africa data centre market is expanding following higher demand from financial institutions, manufacturers, oil and gas companies and enterprises.

In countries like Ghana, businesses are required by law to store data locally, similarly to what is happening in other regions of the world. This is in turn also driving data centre construction, specifically in Ghana.

Oluwole Babatope, Senior Analyst for IDC West Africa, said: “Data centre and cloud services are expected to keep expanding in West Africa.

“The former services are expected to gain traction faster than the latter, although the adoption of cloud services will likely accelerate as IT markets across the region mature.”