As Lagos swarms with an intricate maze of high-tech wiring, each meandering through unseen waves of connectivity, the city’s south-eastern corridor is emerging as the beating heart of Nigeria’s data infrastructure ambitions. From the Atlantic coastline to the Lekki Lagoon, a concentrated cluster of data centers, submarine cable landing stations, and energy-intensive server farms is forming the foundation of West Africa’s digital economy.
Now, Itana, Nigeria’s first Digital Special Economic Zone, is entering the fray — not as a traditional data center operator, but as an infrastructure layer that seeks to address a deeper challenge: building sovereign, local platforms for Africa’s AI future.
This week, Itana announced the launch of a dedicated “full-stack growth zone” for AI and data companies within its zone in Alaro City, a 2,000-hectare development in Lagos State’s broader Lekki Free Zone. The initiative adds a new dimension to the region’s data boom: not just bandwidth and racks, but GPUs, governance, and AI-specific infrastructure.
“Africa will not win in the AI age by consuming what the rest of the world builds,” says Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, General Partner at Future Africa, an investor in Itana. “We’ll win by creating the infrastructure that allows our people to build for themselves.”
Lagos’s Data Rush
Itana’s announcement comes amid a broader surge in data center investment across Nigeria, with the country’s data infrastructure market valued at $278 million in 2024 and projected to reach $671 million by 2030. Market intelligence estimates that Nigeria currently hosts 65.8 MW in third-party capacity, with an additional 327 MW already in the pipeline — most of it concentrated along the increasingly strategic Lekki corridor.
This coastal strip has become the epicenter of Nigeria’s digital infrastructure boom, thanks to a combination of regulatory incentives, improved logistics, and proximity to subsea cable landing stations. Several major operators are accelerating their investments in the area. MainOne, now part of Equinix, operates a Tier III-certified facility (MDXi) connected directly to its subsea cable and is investing a further $140 million to expand its Lagos presence. Africa Data Centres is running a 20.65 MW operation with nearly 10,000 square meters of white space in nearby Eko Atlantic City, while Open Access Data Centres (OADC) is developing a 24 MW, carrier-neutral facility in Lekki — also a landing point for Google’s high-capacity Equiano cable. MTN Nigeria, though situated in Ikeja, has entered the market with the Sifiso Dabengwa Data Centre, a $120 million, 4.5 MW Tier III modular facility that is priced in naira to provide local businesses relief from foreign exchange pressures.
Together, these developments are rapidly transforming Lagos into one of Africa’s most concentrated hubs for digital infrastructure — setting the stage for ventures like Itana to thrive by offering the software, legal, and AI-specific layers needed to leverage this physical backbone.
What Itana Adds: From Infrastructure to Legal Fabric
Unlike these players, Itana is creating an integrated ecosystem that combines physical infrastructure, compute access, and a legal jurisdiction designed for the digital age.
Itana offers local access to GPU clusters, compliant low-latency data storage, and vetted MLOps and AI engineering talent — components usually out of reach for African firms. According to UNDP data, fewer than 5% of AI developers on the continent have access to the hardware needed to train modern models.
“Africa must act now to provide its builders with AI infrastructure or risk becoming permanently dependent on foreign platforms,” says Itana CEO Mayowa Olugbile.
Itana also operates under a distinct legal model. Drawing inspiration from Delaware and Dubai Internet City, it uses Nigeria’s Free Zone laws to offer digital-first incorporation, tax incentives, and regulatory clarity. For $2,000 in setup fees and $1,150 annually, companies can register remotely and operate under an optimized regime for digital businesses.
The project is backed by the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC), which is providing development capital and leading a $100 million Phase 1 rollout. The infrastructure within Itana’s Alaro City district includes gas-powered energy, dual fiber-optic cabling, and smart utilities — critical for mitigating Nigeria’s high diesel and operational costs, which have surged more than 200% in the past year.
Reversing the Brain Drain, Digitally
More than 70% of the companies already operating within Itana’s zone are diaspora-owned or foreign startups, suggesting that legal predictability and local infrastructure are key draws. Itana’s long-term bet is that Africa’s digital growth will depend not just on bringing capital in — but on stopping talent from flowing out.
“You can launch from Nairobi, scale from Lagos, and serve London — all from your laptop,” says Itana co-founder Luqman Edu. “That’s the point.”
The company is also conducting a public consultation survey with ecosystem stakeholders — from AI researchers to cloud providers — to help shape the design and rollout of its AI zone.
As global competition over AI intensifies, Lagos’s rapidly expanding infrastructure corridor represents Africa’s most concrete shot at technological sovereignty. And while server racks and cooling fans may power the day-to-day, Itana is betting that legal architecture and access to compute will shape who truly gets to build the continent’s digital future.