Equinix, a leading global data center provider, is investing $140 million to expand digital infrastructure across southern Nigeria over the next two years. This strategic initiative includes the launch of a new data center in Port Harcourt and the expansion of its third Lagos-based facility, LG3, in a major push to decentralize internet infrastructure away from Lagos.
This development follows Equinix’s successful $320 million acquisition of Nigerian digital infrastructure company MainOne in 2022. With this investment, Equinix is reinforcing its commitment to advancing Nigeria’s digital economy and addressing regional disparities in internet access and capacity.
A cornerstone of this expansion is Equinix PR1, the company’s first facility in Port Harcourt. The center will double as Nigeria’s first landing station for Meta’s 2Africa submarine cable, dramatically boosting bandwidth in the region and easing the historic reliance on Lagos for international connectivity.
The 2Africa cable, alongside Google’s Equiano cable, is one of the world’s highest capacity systems with design speeds exceeding 100 Tbps. The arrival of PR1 marks a pivotal shift for southern Nigeria, a region with a booming population and significant economic importance due to its oil and gas industry.
In addition to expanding its physical footprint, Equinix is working to increase resilience in West Africa’s connectivity ecosystem. The company is adopting an “active/active” model by routing traffic across multiple submarine cables simultaneously.
“Our goal is for customers not to notice when one cable goes down,” said Wole Abu, Managing Director of Equinix West Africa. “This redundancy is essential for business continuity and digital reliability in the region.”
Nigeria’s digital infrastructure has come a long way since the introduction of GSM mobile licenses in 2001. With over 140 million mobile subscribers today, the landscape has evolved through the emergence of telecom tower companies and investments in fiber-optic and data center infrastructure.
Equinix’s entry into the Nigerian market in 2022 was a significant inflection point. Its acquisition of MainOne marked Nigeria’s integration into a global digital network of over 260 International Business Exchange (IBX) data centers across 74 metropolitan areas. These are interconnected via Equinix Fabric, a software-defined platform that facilitates secure, high-speed connections between data centers, cloud providers, and enterprises.
Despite Nigeria’s growing network of undersea cables and increased international bandwidth, the country’s inland connectivity remains limited. Middle-mile infrastructure—linking coastal landing stations to users in remote and interior regions—is still underdeveloped.
As of January 2025, broadband penetration in Nigeria stands at 45%, well below the 70% target set in the National Broadband Plan (2020–2025). The World Bank estimates that Nigeria must build an additional 95,000 kilometers of fiber to achieve comprehensive coverage.
To address this, the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy recently introduced a Broadband Alliance focused on national fiber backbone development. Equinix is positioned as a key private sector partner in this effort.
“Our vendor-neutral, interconnected platform fosters collaboration among industry players to grow West Africa’s digital ecosystem,” Abu added.
Equinix’s expansion into Port Harcourt is a bold step toward breaking Lagos’ long-standing dominance over Nigeria’s data infrastructure. By enabling more equitable distribution of digital resources, the company aims to foster broader economic inclusion and resilience.
With the launch of PR1 and the scaling of LG3, Equinix is not only bolstering Nigeria’s internet capacity but also catalyzing new digital growth corridors across the southern region.
