The move also pits them against rising local providers like Nobus Cloud<\/a> and Layer3, who gained ground after the naira\u2019s sharp fall in 2023. Unlike MTN and Airtel, these smaller players do not own their infrastructure and rely on open-source platforms like OpenStack<\/a>.<\/p>\n Telcos believe their ownership of the entire stack \u2014 from infrastructure to service \u2014 gives them a pricing and performance edge.<\/p>\n MTN targets startups with affordable cloud storage, local compute power, and naira-based billing. Airtel is betting on AI workloads, investing in hyperscale infrastructure built for massive data processing. Together, they believe they have enough to win over startups.<\/p>\n MTN\u2019s cloud ambition<\/p>\n When MTN announced in June 2024 that it was building a Tier 4 data centre, its then chief technical officer, Mohammed Rufai, said, \u201cOur facility will provide the space and services needed, enabling companies to digitalise their operations and improve efficiency.\u201d<\/p>\n This hinted at how the telco was thinking about its facility, so when MTN\u2019s Saint-Nwafor recently revealed that Nigerian businesses spent $600\u2013$850 million on cloud services in 2024, it became clear that the telco intends to be bullish on cloud services.<\/p>\n According to Mordor Intelligence<\/a>, Nigeria\u2019s cloud computing market will hit $1.03 billion in 2025, reaching $3.28 billion by 2030. Statista<\/a> expects the public cloud segment alone to generate $1.63 billion in 2025.<\/p>\n Most of this becomes capital flight, with AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud \u2014 which together accounted for 65%<\/a> of the $90.9 billion spent globally on cloud services in Q1 2025 \u2014 claiming the lion\u2019s share.<\/p>\n Since the 2023 devaluation, startups have faced growing pressure as naira revenues struggle to match rising dollar costs. The currency has slumped from \u20a6471\/$ to \u00a0\u20a61,534.52\/$<\/a> \u20a61,534.52\/$ as of August 14, 2025.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen the dollar devaluation happened, a lot of dollar expenses went up, and most startups\u2019 expenses went up,\u201d said Aaron Sotunde-Adesina, CEO of Quonos.<\/p>\n MTN wants to turn this pain into an opportunity by pricing in naira, undercutting global rates by 15\u201320%, and hosting workloads locally to cut latency and strengthen data sovereignty.<\/p>\n So far, it has invested $120 million, with another $135 million planned. \u201cOur cloud is crafted for Nigerian startups, enterprises, and public institutions,\u201d says Ifeanyi Otudor, senior consultant, MTN Enterprise Solutions.<\/p>\n Alongside enhanced cybersecurity, the platform supports self-orchestration, allowing customers to provision and scale resources as they would on AWS or Google Cloud.<\/p>\n Sotunde-Adesina believes adoption will depend on performance: \u201cIf it is cheap and works, people will adopt it. If it doesn\u2019t work or isn\u2019t reliable, it will be a big struggle.\u201d He notes that local providers have historically failed to match foreign reliability.<\/p>\n Shifting to a new cloud platform will be a learning curve for startups. \u201cIt might not take a while. We have young and new developers coming up. They\u2019ll be native to it,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n The telco will still face stiff competition from global giants offering incentives. Google, through its African startup accelerator programme, has provided<\/a> over $5 million in equity-free funding and cloud credits to startups since 2018. In April 2025, Amazon CTO Werner Vogels visited Lagos, pledging, \u201cAmazon wants to follow where the talent is.\u201d<\/p>\n MTN is countering with its accelerator programme, offering up to \u20a6100 million in grants and incentives for growth-stage startups. \u201cWe want Africa\u2019s future to be powered by MTN\u2019s cloud,\u201d said Saint-Nwafor.\u00a0<\/p>\n In 2019, the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) introduced a Cloud Computing Policy<\/a> to encourage public organisations and SMEs to use local providers. Kashifu Inuwa, director general of NITDA, reiterated this at the launch of MTN Cloud, saying, \u201cThis is an opportunity to show the world we are ready to build sovereign cloud infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n Abia State is already on MTN Cloud, but the telco\u2019s broader ambition remains startups.<\/p>\n Airtel\u2019s AI bet<\/p>\n In March 2024, Airtel broke ground on a 38-megawatt hyperscale data centre in Eko Atlantic, currently valued at $120 million and counting.<\/p>\n Hyperscale<\/a> facilities, typically housing at least 5,000 servers, are engineered for massive workloads like generative AI. When completed in 2026, it will be Nigeria\u2019s first hyperscale data centre, and Airtel plans to leverage this advantage.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are building at a hyperscale level, designed for the new server loads that modern infrastructure demands,\u201d said Ogo Ofomata, director of Airtel Business, at a recent media gathering.<\/p>\n CEO Dinesh Balsingh added: \u201cIf you want to make transformational change, we are talking about high-capacity data centres, which can take the load of artificial intelligence that Nigeria needs.\u201d<\/p>\n Unlike traditional data centres, AI-ready facilities depend on high-performance GPUs instead of CPU servers, offering builders computing power combined with advanced storage, networking, and cooling needed at scale. The facility has already received its first GPUs for AI model training.<\/p>\n While the telco may have its heart in the right place, attracting startups will be challenging. \u201cI want to move off AWS, but my CTO and backend engineer favour it as the best for building an AI company,\u201d said Adeboye Idowu, CEO of 3Rings, an AI startup.<\/p>\n AI could add \u00a0$15 billion<\/a> to Nigeria\u2019s GDP by 2030, yet, according to Oxford Insights<\/a>, the country\u2019s AI infrastructure index stands at just 42.67. In Nigeria\u2019s draft National AI Strategy<\/a>, stakeholders emphasised that the vision depends on affordable, localised compute infrastructure.<\/p>\n \u201cThe current era of AI requires modern data centres with accelerated computing, data and model stacks. Consequently, Nigeria\u2019s data centre infrastructure needs to be upgraded and scaled to meet the demands of AI research and use,\u201d they noted.<\/p>\n Airtel is betting its hyperscale will deliver this. \u201cData centres are actually for artificial intelligence,\u201d added Balsingh.<\/p>\n MTN and Airtel\u2019s combined data centre spend is a fraction of the $180 billion \u00a0Google<\/a>, Microsoft<\/a>, and AWS<\/a> are investing in 2025 alone. But as with every developmental wave, Africa, in this case Nigeria, has had to build and scale at its own pace, mixing local ambition with international support.<\/p>\n As the Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Bosun Tijani, put it at a recent gathering. \u201cWe cannot build a modern economy without modern infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n As telcos aim to plug a crucial gap for many startups, the jury is out on whether they can match the reliability, incentives, and scale of the global cloud giants.<\/p>\n Mark your calendars! Moonshot by TechCabal is back in Lagos on October 15\u201316! Join Africa\u2019s top founders, creatives & tech leaders for 2 days of keynotes, mixers & future-forward ideas. Early bird tickets now 20% off\u2014don\u2019t snooze!\u00a0moonshot.techcabal.com<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Moonshot-Announcement-Flyers1920-x-1080-1-1024x576.jpg\")
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