West Africa urgently needs more digital infrastructure
Equinix, a digital infrastructure company and the owner of MainOne in Africa, acknowledges the significant progress in digital infrastructure in Nigeria, Ghana, and Cote d’Ivoire within a short period.
However, there is still a need for further development before enabling a truly 'Intelligent Age' in the region, said the company.
Wole Abu, Equinix's MD for West Africa, emphasized in his blog that despite the progress achieved in West Africa over the years, there is no room for complacency now.
He explained: “There’s still a lot of work to be done, and it starts with improving resilience to avoid a repeat of last year’s disruptions.
“Local governments and global bodies like the International Cable Protection Council (ICPC) are working to address the issue.
"In February 2025, the ICPC hosted its International Submarine Cable Resilience Summit in Abuja. It was the first time this conference was ever hosted outside of Europe.”
Abu went on to say treating data centres and subsea cables as critical national infrastructure is no longer just a buzzword.
“Now, there are actually people on the ground working to make that happen. At Equinix, we’re routing traffic over multiple cables in West Africa on an active/active basis,” he said.
“The next time a cable fails in the region, our goal is to ensure that we’ll know about it, but our customers won’t. This is because their traffic will reroute automatically, before they even notice anything’s wrong.”
Regarding bridging the middle-mile gap, Abu highlighted that digital infrastructure encompasses more than just subsea cables.
He elaborated: “New cable capacity is certainly helpful, but those cables need to land somewhere. There also needs to be terrestrial fibre, commonly called “middle-mile” infrastructure, to transfer bandwidth from the cable landing station to end users.
“This is one area where West Africa falls short, particularly outside of the major coastal metros like Lagos, Accra and Abidjan.”
Nasdaq-listed Equinix operates in over 70 markets across 33 countries, including Africa.
In April 2022, the US-based company made its entry into the continent by acquiring MainOne, a prominent West African provider of data centers and communication solutions, marking a strategic move in the company's expansion into Africa.
Equinix paid $320 million for MainOne, which has operations in Nigeria, Ghana, and Cote d'Ivoire, signalling the start of the company's African growth strategy.
MainOne's assets include four operational data centers and a robust submarine network that extends over 7,000 kilometers from Portugal to key locations like Lagos, Accra, and the West African coast, with dedicated landing stations in Nigeria, Ghana, and Côte d'Ivoire.
Furthermore, the company operates a terrestrial fiber network in Nigeria, covering a distance of over 1,200 kilometers across key regions such as Lagos, Edo, and Ogun states, contributing significantly to enhancing connectivity and infrastructure development in the area.
Looking ahead, Abu said Equinix has announced $140 million in investments over the next two years to expand existing facilities in the region.