The continent’s artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure is taking a giant leap into the future with a collaboration between mobile phone operator MTN and a Dubai-based tycoon Tarek Al Ashram.
Leveraging MTN’s extensive footprint across the continent, the partnership will deliver AI data centres through the new Africa Data Hub venture, with an initial focus on Nigeria and South Africa, according to MTN.
Al Ashram, the founder of Gulf Data Hub, one of the largest colocation service providers in the Middle East and North Africa region, says he has witnessed how the ‘development of world-class data centre infrastructure can support the rapid growth of cloud, digital services and AI’ across the Middle East.
‘Africa now presents a similarly compelling opportunity, driven by strong underlying demand, rapidly expanding digital economies and an increasing need for resilient and scalable infrastructure.’
MTN indicates the Africa Data Hub will bring together investment, infrastructure expertise, connectivity and market access in one platform to support hyper-scalers, cloud providers, other enterprises and technology innovators across the continent.
A Bloomberg report quotes MTN CEO Ralph Mupita as saying the initiative will adopt a phased approach starting with 150 MW of AI data centre capacity.
‘The approach that we are taking on the building of our AI business is to partner with third parties and the entity that we are partnering with has built data centres in the UAE,’ he said
The Bloomberg report suggests the partnership will build data centres in Nigeria and South Africa to process MTN’s data flow while also leasing out capacity to hyper-scalers, other enterprises and governments.
1 September 2026
Image: Unsplash
