MDXi to Invest Additional N2.5bn for Data Centre Expansion

• MDXi to Invest Additional N2.5bn for Data Centre Expansion

MDXi, the data centre owned by MainOne Broadband Company, has commenced the second phase expansion to build additional 300 racks for its data centre operation, estimated to gulp N2.5 billion.

The General Manager, MDXi, Mr. Gbenga Adegbiyi, who made the disclosure during a media tour of the MDXi Data Centre facilities in Lagos at the weekend, said the need for the expansion was based on customers’ demand, having occupied almost all the available space left in the existing 300 rack space that was built in 2015, during the first phase construction of its data centre located in Lekki axis of Lagos.

“The design for the completion our Tier 111 Data Centre was estimated to gulp $40 million (N12.2 billion) and we have spent $35 million (N10.7 billion) for the completion of the first phase, which has 300 racks and has been operational since 2015, but as I speak the entire existing 300 rack space is almost occupied by customers and the demand to occupy more rack spaces is on the increase, hence the need for the commencement of the second phase that is estimated to gulp additional N2.5 billion, which we plan to complete by the end of this year,” Adegbiyi said.

According to him, several kinds equipment have been supplied and installation is ongoing. We need to move fast to meet customers demand because more Nigerian business owners and foreign investors in Nigeria are beginning to see the need to host their data in Nigeria, and we need to build up the capacity fast.

Adegbiyi who admitted that data centre business is capital intensive, called on the federal government to support data centre operations in Nigeria. He said there was need for proper regulation of data centre operations in the county and called on government to declare data centre operation as critical national infrastructure that needs government attention because of the critical role data centre plays in the economy of any nation.

Giving details of MDXi operations in Nigeria, Adegbiyi said: “MDXI is West Africa’s largest full scale data centre provider offering colocation, wholesale deployments, interconnection and cloud services. MDXI is the gold standard for data centre real estate in the region as it develops a data centre ecosystem spanning facilities in Lagos, Sagamu, Accra, Cote D’Ivoire and Senegal.”

According to him, MDXi is best in class infrastructure, built to TIA 942 and Uptime Institute Tier III Standards, which as serves as West Africa’s Tier III facility with PCI DSS, ISO 27001 and 9001 certifications.

MDXI customers have direct access to all major telecom carrier and Internet Service Provider (ISP) networks in West Africa, with interconnections at multiple peering exchanges in Nigeria, Ghana, Amsterdam, and London, offering cloud services in addition to data hosting.