South African infrastructure investor INFRAGORA Global Capital plans to build two artificial intelligence-ready data centres in Nigeria, in a project estimated to cost between $650 million and $1 billion. The facilities would be located in Lagos and Delta State, and form part of the firm's AFRIDATA platform.

Construction is targeted to begin in the second and third quarters of 2027, according to TechCabal, which reported comments from Kiel Odiogo, INFRAGORA's senior managing director. The project is described as being in the final stages of detailed assessment and design, with financial close expected before construction begins.

Capacity, power and funding still to be finalised

The two centres are designed to start at a combined 60 to 70 megawatts of capacity, expandable to 100 megawatts, and to support cloud computing and artificial intelligence workloads. The Lagos site is planned as a Tier IV, AI-ready and cloud-enabled facility, while the Delta State site is expected to serve as a Tier III or Tier IV redundancy and disaster-recovery facility with similar capabilities.

The United States Trade and Development Agency is funding a $1.87 million feasibility study for the project, covering technical and financial assessments including the facilities' capacity to support AI workloads. That study funding is separate from the construction budget, which has not been secured in full in public disclosures.

INFRAGORA has not disclosed how much funding it has secured or named its financial backers, citing confidentiality, although Odiogo said the project had attracted support from regional and international institutional investors. The wider AFRIDATA platform is valued at $3 billion to more than $5 billion across other African markets, including Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire, Kenya, Tanzania, Angola, South Africa and Egypt.

Sources: TechCabal and Business Tech Africa