The United States Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) is supporting plans for two large-scale artificial intelligence-ready data centres in Nigeria with a $1.87 million feasibility-study grant, opening a new phase in the development of the country’s computing infrastructure.
The facilities are being proposed by South Africa-based infrastructure investment firm INFRAGORA Global Capital under its AFRIDATA Datacenter Platform. The planned sites are in Lagos and Delta states and would initially provide a combined 60–70 megawatts (MW) of capacity, with room to expand to 100 MW.
The USTDA funding does not finance construction of the facilities. Instead, the study will assess their technical and commercial feasibility, including bankability, market demand, regulatory risks, financing requirements and the technology and equipment needed to support AI workloads.
The proposed Lagos facility is planned as a Tier IV, AI-ready and cloud-enabled data centre, while the Delta facility would serve as a redundancy and disaster-recovery site with Tier III or Tier IV capability. Together, the facilities are designed to accommodate conventional computing as well as high-density GPU infrastructure required for artificial intelligence applications.
USTDA said the project is intended to strengthen Nigeria’s digital economy and create opportunities for U.S. companies supplying AI software, cloud infrastructure, computing hardware, advanced networking and cybersecurity solutions. The agency said the project could also help improve the reliability of digital services for Nigerian businesses and institutions.
The proposed infrastructure comes as demand for computing capacity grows alongside cloud services, artificial intelligence and other digital businesses. USTDA estimates that Nigeria’s data-centre market is growing at a 14.2% compound annual rate and could reach 226.7 MW by 2029.
For Nigeria’s digital economy, the significance extends beyond having more server space. Data centres require reliable electricity, fibre connectivity, cooling systems, specialised hardware and substantial capital. Their expansion therefore creates demand for infrastructure and services beyond the data-centre operators themselves.
The project also reflects a broader U.S.-Nigeria technology relationship. USTDA said its support is intended to give U.S. technology companies opportunities to compete in Nigeria’s expanding data-centre market, while INFRAGORA plans to use Nigeria as the first market in a wider African data-centre platform.
INFRAGORA’s wider plan includes potential data-centre platforms in several other African markets, including Angola, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya and South Africa. The Nigerian project is therefore being positioned as an initial step in a larger continental infrastructure strategy.
The immediate next step is the feasibility study. USTDA’s procurement notice says qualified U.S. firms have until October 13, 2026 to submit proposals for the study, after which its findings will help determine the most commercially and technically viable route for developing the facilities.
For Nigeria, the bigger test will be whether projects of this scale can translate growing AI and cloud demand into actual domestic computing capacity, while securing the power, connectivity and financing needed to operate data centres at scale.
