Lagos data centre wars

While the news of Shoprite walking back on Ghana and Malawi hogged the media headlines yesterday, another multinational company quietly made an exit.

On August 5, Ecobank, the pan-African bank with presence in 33 countries, decided to end its relationship with Mozambique.

Catch up: Ecobank submitting a filing on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NGX) announcing the sale of its entire shareholding in its Mozambican business—including assets, and four bank branches—to Malawi’s FDH Bank. The deal, which has received necessary regulatory approvals, will be completed by the end of 2025, with no major changes expected for customers or staff.

State of play: The bank says this is part of its plan to focus on countries where it can grow and make better returns. Mozambique was a small operation, with limited impact on the group’s overall business.

Between the lines: Ecobank still wants to be a pan-African bank. But instead of being in every country, it now prefers to work with partners or use digital channels in smaller markets. FDH Bank will take over on-the-ground operations, but Ecobank services will still reach Mozambican users through digital platforms.

Zoom out: The move comes just as South Africa’s Nedbank, Ecobank’s biggest outside investor, plans to sell 21.2% of its stake in the pan-African lender. Both banks are cutting back on wide, costly networks and focusing on fewer, stronger markets.

The big picture: Ecobank is not stepping back from Africa. It’s picking its battles—keeping a wide reach, but spending only where it sees real value.

Airtel Nigeria is challenging MTN Nigeria with plans to build Nigeria’s largest hyperscale data centre, significantly reshaping competition in digital infrastructure across West Africa.

Why it matters: Airtel’s ambitious project positions Nigeria as an increasingly critical digital infrastructure hub in Africa, directly challenging telecom giant MTN’s recently launched $235 million Sifiso Dabengwa data centre, currently the largest Tier III facility in West Africa.

State of play: Just weeks after MTN’s launch—celebrated for its 4.5 megawatts (MW) IT load capacity, expandable up to 9 MW—Airtel announced a hyperscale data centre planned for Lagos’s Eko Atlantic City. Airtel’s facility will deliver an unprecedented 38 MW IT load, dwarfing MTN’s facility by more than eight times.

Here’s what’s different: Unlike MTN’s emphasis on local cloud hosting, Airtel is explicitly targeting artificial intelligence. CEO Dinesh Balsingh and Airtel Business Director Ogo Ofomata revealed that the centre is designed from the ground up to support GPU servers, essential for intensive AI workloads demanding significantly greater power and cooling capacity.

Additionally, Airtel selected Eko Atlantic for its superior security and reliable power infrastructure, crucial factors for maintaining large-scale AI computing operations.

The big picture: This aggressive push into hyperscale infrastructure by Airtel highlights growing telecom competition that will benefit Africa’s digital economy, driving down costs and expanding connectivity options. With Airtel’s facility explicitly targeting AI applications, Nigeria could quickly become a regional leader in supporting advanced technologies, attracting global tech giants and startups alike.

Ultimately, more data centres mean broader digital access and increased opportunities for economic growth across the continent.

Riddle me this: how are Nigerian telecom companies (read: MTN Nigeria and Airtel) reporting record profit margins in H1 2025, on the back of increased telecom tariffs, strong data demand, and stable currency, yet the number of internet users in the country are declining?

Congratulations. You've unlocked the telecom paradox happening in Nigeria right now.

What happened? According to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Nigerian telecom firms lost 1 million internet subscribers in H1 2025. The number dropped from 141.6 million to 140.6 million.

Nigerian telecom firms have weathered similar subscriber losses before, most notably in 2016, H1 2021, and H1 2024, when they lost 5 million, 11.1 million, and 25.6 million internet users, respectively. The H1 2024 drop was the worst six-month decline since the NCC began publishing this data in 2012.

What happened in those years? In 2016, SIM registration rules pushed users to drop extra lines. In 2021 and 2024, government enforcement of NIN-SIM linkage led to mass deactivation. These were clear regulatory shocks.

So, what’s going on in 2025? This time, it looks more like a market correction. Here are three possible reasons.

• Phones are too expensive: Smartphone sales have dipped in 2025, making it harder for new users to join the mobile internet economy.
• People are choosing one SIM: With data prices rising, Nigerians who once juggled multiple SIM cards may now be sticking with the one that gives the best data value, discarding the rest.
• Some people have just opted out: Non-power internet users—think mummies and daddies at home—could be subscribing less to internet data, instead finding other ways to stay connected.

But here’s the twist: Despite the subscriber drop, telecom operators are seeing higher average revenue per user (ARPU). So, while fewer people are online, those who are, are spending more—possibly buying larger data bundles or using voice services more.

The takeaway: Despite losing 1 million internet subscribers in H1 2025, Nigerian telecoms aren’t in crisis. They've weathered worse—especially regulatory clampdowns. This recent dip is more of a market fluctuation than a structural threat, and may self-correct as growth rebounds.

A childhood book, seven years of persistence, and courage. The Passport of Mallam Ilia is a blueprint for how to build an animation industry from scratch. Ferdy Adimefe, CEO of Magic Carpet Studios, goes behind the scenes of the dream, the team, the tech—and the roadblocks no one talks about.

In this behind-the-scenes story, we follow how an ambitious idea grew from a love of storytelling into a groundbreaking animation project. What started with a $1 million estimate ballooned to $8 million, before finally settling at $2 million—still an enormous sum for an independent studio operating in a country with no real animation pipeline or funding structure.

Building an animation team from scratch or facing rejections from distributors and investors is not easy, but Adimefe’s team faced all of this and more; a testament to the difficult journey the studio has faced. The studio reinvested earnings from client work (including Cartoon Network) and even turned to crowdfunding. During COVID-19, when the world seemed to stop spinning, Adimefe’s team forged on.

This is more than a story about one film. It is about building infrastructure, upskilling talent, and proving that Africa can tell compelling stories with world-class animation. With 173,000 drawings, software like Toon Boom, and a resilient team, The Passport of Mallam Ilia is a case study in what it takes to animate a dream against all odds.

Read on TechCabal to see how Nigeria’s biggest animated gamble almost didn’t happen.

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The World Wide Web3

Source:

Coin Name	Current Value	Day	Month
Bitcoin	$114,557	+ 0.29%	+ 5.85%
Ether	$3,684	+ 1.12%	+ 44.41%
MemeFi	$0.005137	+ 265.14%	+ 366.09%
Solana	$168.30	+ 2.41%	+ 12.74%

* Data as of 06.45 AM WAT, August 7, 2025.

Events

• Bridge And Value and AlexBoyo World (ABW) are hosting a bespoke trade mission to Paris for Nigerian businesses looking to scale into France and the wider European market. From September 22–26, 2025, participants will attend the Spotlight Nigeria Business Forum (8th edition), Europe's premier Nigeria-focused summit, and BIG 2025, Bpifrance’s flagship entrepreneurship event. The itinerary also includes high-level business meetings, networking sessions with French investors and institutions, and a guided visit to Station F, the world’s largest startup incubator. Registration is open until August 15.

• My Life in Tech: ‘Not just for coders’ – Naima McLean’s journey from artist to ALX’s creative tech leader
• Licensed, banned, undecided? Here’s the state of crypto licensing in Africa
• Hackers hijacked Google’s Gemini AI with a poisoned calendar invite to take over a smart home

Written by: Emmanuel Nwosu, Faith Omoniyi, and Fancy Goodman

Edited by: Faith Omoniyi

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