By Juliet Umeh

Executives from Africa’s digital infrastructure, telecom, and cloud industries have called for urgent reforms to unlock the continent’s next phase of digital growth.

The call was made on Tuesday in Lagos during the Hyperscalers Convergence Africa 2025, a high-level summit themed “The Power of Convergence.” The event brought together global and African technology leaders to discuss critical infrastructure bottlenecks—ranging from energy and regulation to financing and the growing flight of technical talent.

Speakers included Bill Kleyman, Chief Executive, Apolo and Executive Chair, Data Center Programs at Informa; Dr. Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, Director-General, National Information Technology Development Agency, NITDA; Guy Zibi, Managing Partner, Xalam Analytics; Shayo Olumide, Vice President, Heavy Industries, Telecoms & Technology, Africa Finance Corporation (AFC); Vivek Mittal, CEO, African Infrastructure Development Association (AFIDA); Ben Roberts, Principal, Digital Economy Advisors; Johnson Agogbua, CEO, Kasi Cloud; Akeem Adeshina, Chief Commercial Officer, IHS Nigeria; and Dr. Ayotunde Coker, CEO, Open Access Data Centres.

In his keynote, Kleyman described Africa as “one of the world’s fastest-growing digital markets” but warned that energy shortages could stall progress.

He said: “Connectivity is the lifeblood of people—it’s how we live, work, and play. That’s why major organisations are moving aggressively into Africa.”

Kleyman noted that data centre power demand across the continent is growing at 20–25 percent annually and could reach 8,000 gigawatt-hours.

“The industry is at a point where success requires two things: power and bravery,” he added.

He also highlighted challenges in artificial intelligence (AI) adoption, noting that global AI workloads are pushing rack densities from 16 to 60 kilowatts, while only about 10 percent of facilities are ready.

“Vision without execution is just hallucination. Africa has a chance to seize its nugget in this digital gold rush,” he said.

During a panel on scaling Africa’s data centre capacity to 2,500 MW, Johnson Agogbua, CEO of Kasi Cloud, warned that “talent, not technology,” could become the continent’s greatest bottleneck.

“We’ll solve power and connectivity, but can we train enough people—and keep them here?” he asked.

Roger Shutte, General Manager, Infrastructure & Cloud Engineering, MTN Nigeria, echoed the concern: “As we skill people up, how do we ensure they stay to support local businesses and provide the digital sovereignty we require?”

Muhammed Rudman, CEO, Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria (IXPN), also stressed the need to localise internet content.

“Before now, Nigeria’s networks were largely access networks, always reaching out to content abroad. What we’re doing now is keeping that content home,” he said.

On policy direction, Dr. Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, DG, NITDA, outlined a roadmap for digital sovereignty and sustainable innovation.

“Africa’s digital shift must pair bold vision with practical execution. Many global tech giants began as community innovations solving local problems,” he said.
He urged co-creation of adaptive, data-driven policies “so technology serves humanity, not the other way round,” citing Nigeria’s 3 Million Technical Talent (3MTT) programme as a step toward building a productive digital workforce.

Opening the summit, Temitope Osunrinde, Executive Director, Africa Hyperscalers, painted a stark picture of Africa’s infrastructure gap.

“Africa represents 18 percent of the world’s population yet accounts for less than 2 percent of global data centre capacity and under 1 percent of compute power. Eighty percent of our data is still hosted offshore,” he said.

He noted that investment momentum is growing through subsea cable projects by Meta and Google, and new facilities from Visa, Equinix, Raxio, Digital Realty, and Nvidia. However, Osunrinde emphasised the need for enabling reforms.

“Six hundred million Africans still lack electricity, even as new data centres consume the equivalent of small cities,” he said.
“The challenge is not just to power homes but to power Africa’s digital economy. Governments must fast-track approvals, open telecom networks to competition, and incentivise renewable energy.”

Across all sessions, one message resonated: Africa’s digital revolution will depend not only on capital and technology but also on coordination—between power and policy, talent and regulation, public vision and private execution.

Other notable speakers included Otuya Okecha, CEO, FibreSol; Marco Rebecchi, Country Manager, Nokia West Africa; Josephine Sarouk, Managing Director, Bayobab; Lanre Kolade, CEO, Koltronics Nigeria; and Tola Talabi, CEO, Elektron Energy.

Africa Hyperscalers, hosts of the summit, is a pan-African digital infrastructure intelligence and market engagement platform connecting executives, policymakers, and investors to shape the continent’s digital future.