Equinix, the global digital infrastructure giant, has announced a $140 million investment to enhance internet connectivity across Southern Nigeria. This move represents a strategic expansion beyond the commercial city of Lagos to bridge the digital divide in one of Africa’s fastest-growing economies.

Following its $320 million acquisition of the Nigerian connectivity provider MainOne in 2022, the global digital infrastructure giant is now poised to launch PR1, its first data centre in Port Harcourt, and expand LG3, its third facility in Lagos. PR1 will also host Nigeria’s first landing station for Meta’s 2Africa submarine cable, increasing bandwidth capacity and providing a much-needed alternative to Lagos’ predominance in data access.

This expansion is part of Equinix’s broader effort to decentralise Nigeria’s internet infrastructure and strengthen digital resilience across the region. Currently, Lagos accommodates over 70% of the country’s subsea cable landings, creating a bottleneck for users in inland and underserved areas.

“Nigeria has tremendous potential, but growth must be inclusive,” said Wole Abu, Managing Director of Equinix West Africa. “By creating multiple interconnection points and deploying active redundancy, we’re making the internet faster and more resilient.”

Nigeria’s digital transformation has accelerated over the past two decades, from zero mobile subscribers in 2001 to over 140 million today. Yet, only 45% of the population currently has broadband access—far from the national target of 70% by 2025. The World Bank estimates an additional 95,000 kilometres of fibre is needed to close this gap.

Recently, Nigeria’s government launched a Broadband Alliance to tackle the “middle-mile” challenge of connecting coastal cables to inland users. Equinix’s open-access platform and extensive interconnection capabilities position it as a key private-sector partner in this initiative.