Nigeria is projected to become Africa’s fastest-growing data center investment market, with annual investment expected to increase from $132 million in 2025 to nearly $770 million by 2031, according to new research from Arizton Advisory & Intelligence.
The report highlights how rising cloud adoption, enterprise digital transformation, and growing demand for digital infrastructure are accelerating data center expansion across Africa.
Nigeria Emerges as Key Data Center Growth Market
According to the report, Nigeria’s data center market is being driven largely by increasing cloud infrastructure demand, rapid digitalisation, and expanding enterprise technology adoption.
The wider African data center construction market is projected to reach $4.58 billion by 2031 as governments, telecom operators, cloud providers, and enterprises continue investing heavily in digital infrastructure.
Alongside Nigeria, countries including South Africa, Kenya, and Egypt are also emerging as major hubs for data center development due to improving connectivity infrastructure and increasing demand for colocation services.
The report noted that colocation facilities are expected to remain the dominant segment across investment, power capacity, and physical infrastructure as businesses increasingly outsource computing infrastructure to specialist operators.
South Africa Retains Regional Leadership
Despite Nigeria’s rapid growth trajectory, South Africa is expected to maintain its position as Africa’s largest data center investment market.
Nigeria data center investments accounted for more than $1.2 billion in 2025 and is projected to approach $4.6 billion by 2031.
Major operators currently expanding across South Africa include Teraco, Africa Data Centres, NTT DATA, and Vantage Data Centers.
Industry analysts say South Africa’s established digital infrastructure, submarine cable connectivity, and presence of global cloud regions continue to strengthen its regional leadership position.
Global Cloud Providers Expand African Infrastructure
The report also highlights increasing hyperscale investment activity by major global cloud providers across Africa as artificial intelligence workloads and cloud computing demand continue growing.
Companies including Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, and Google are expanding infrastructure investments to support enterprise cloud services and AI-driven digital transformation across the continent.
In 2025, Google launched its Johannesburg cloud region following an investment of nearly $148 million, while Microsoft announced plans to invest around $300 million into cloud and AI infrastructure expansion in South Africa by 2027.
Emerging African Markets Attract Investor Interest
Beyond Nigeria and South Africa, emerging digital infrastructure markets, including Morocco, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Ghana, and Tanzania are collectively expected to attract more than $1.3 billion in data center investments by 2031.
The report attributes rising investor confidence in these markets to government-backed digitalisation programmes, improving internet connectivity, and growing demand for cloud and enterprise infrastructure services.
Analysts believe Africa’s accelerating data center investments reflect the continent’s broader push toward digital economies, artificial intelligence adoption, and long-term technology infrastructure development.
