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Top executives and innovators from Africa’s digital infrastructure, telecommunications, and cloud industries convened in Lagos on Tuesday for Hyperscalers Convergence Africa 2025, with a unified call for urgent reforms to accelerate the continent’s digital transformation.
Held under the theme “The Power of Convergence,” the summit assembled leaders from across the global data and connectivity ecosystem to tackle Africa’s most pressing digital challenges — from power deficits and policy fragmentation to talent migration and financing constraints.
Among the key speakers were Bill Kleyman, CEO of Apolo.us and Executive Chair for Data Center Programs at Informa; Guy Zibi, Managing Partner, Xalam Analytics; Dr. Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, Director-General, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA); Shayo Olumide, Vice President, Heavy Industries, Telecoms & Technology, Africa Finance Corporation (AFC); Vivek Mittal, CEO, African Infrastructure Development Association (AFIDA); and Ben Roberts, Principal, Digital Economy Advisors.
Other industry figures included Oguche Agudah, Head, Programme, Pan Africa Fund Managers Alliance; Hakeem Adeniji-Adele, Deputy Managing Director, eTranzact; Bukola Ajayi, General Manager, Architecture and Enterprise IT, MTN Nigeria; Akeem Adeshina, Chief Commercial Officer, IHS Nigeria; Johnson Agogbua, CEO, Kasi Cloud; and Dr. Ayotunde Coker, CEO, Open Access Data Centres.
Powering Africa’s Digital Leap
In his keynote address, Bill Kleyman described Africa as “one of the world’s fastest-growing digital markets,” warning that energy constraints could hinder progress.
“Connectivity is the lifeblood of people — it’s how we live, work, and play,” he said. “That’s why global organisations are aggressively investing in Africa.”
Kleyman revealed that the continent’s data-center power demand is rising by 20–25% annually, projected to reach 8,000 gigawatt-hours in the near term. He emphasised that Africa’s success now depends on “two things — power and bravery.”
He added that the global surge in artificial intelligence (AI) adoption is transforming data infrastructure, with rack densities climbing from 16 to 60 kilowatts — yet only about 10% of African facilities are currently AI-ready. “Vision without execution is hallucination,” he remarked. “Africa has a unique chance to claim its share of the digital gold rush.”
Talent, Not Technology, as the Bottleneck
During a panel on scaling to 2,500 MW of capacity, Kasi Cloud CEO Johnson Agogbua cautioned that human capital could emerge as the sector’s biggest constraint.
“We’ll solve the power and connectivity issues — but can we train enough people and keep them here?” he asked.
Roger Shutte, General Manager for Infrastructure & Cloud Engineering, MTN Nigeria, echoed this sentiment: “As we skill people up, how do we ensure they stay to build local capacity and strengthen our digital sovereignty?”
Muhammed Rudman, CEO of the Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria (IXPN), noted that IXPN’s efforts to “domesticate content” are aimed at reducing dependence on international networks. “We’re ensuring Nigerian content stays in Nigeria,” he said.
AI Readiness and Enterprise Transformation
Sessions also examined Africa’s preparedness for artificial intelligence and the evolving enterprise landscape.
Dr. Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi (NITDA) joined leaders from MTN, Business Finland, Ouranos Technologies, and Balancing Act to discuss responsible and competitive AI adoption across sectors.
Another session moderated by Oluwasayo Oshadami of Equinix featured Dr. Yele Okeremi, CEO of Precise Financial Systems, and Hakeem Adeniji-Adele of eTranzact, who explored strategies to close Africa’s enterprise execution gap and scale innovation.
Africa’s Data Gap: The Urgency of Convergence
Opening the summit, Temitope Osunrinde, Executive Director, Africa Hyperscalers, highlighted the scale of the challenge — and opportunity — ahead.
“Africa accounts for 18% of the world’s population but less than 2% of global data center capacity and under 1% of compute power. Meanwhile, 80% of our data remains hosted offshore,” he stated.
He observed that while global vacancy rates for data centers have fallen below 1%, Africa’s investment momentum is rising, driven by subsea cable expansions from Meta and Google, as well as new builds from Visa, Equinix, Raxio, Digital Realty, and Nvidia.
However, Osunrinde cautioned that the continent’s power gap remains a formidable challenge. “Over 600 million Africans still lack electricity, even as our data centers consume energy equivalent to small cities,” he said.
“The task before us is not only to power homes but to power Africa’s digital economy,” he stressed. “Governments must fast-track approvals, open telecom markets to competition, and incentivize renewable energy. With nearly half of a data center’s cost tied to equipment, imagine the impact if those imports were tax-free.”
A Call for Coordination, Not Just Capital
Throughout the summit, one message resonated across all sessions — Africa’s digital revolution will not be driven by technology or capital alone, but by coordination.
Success, speakers agreed, will depend on aligning policy and infrastructure, talent and regulation, and public vision with private execution to create a digitally sovereign and sustainable continent.
Additional speakers included Otuya Okecha (CEO, FibreSol), Abayomi Adebanjo (Director, Legal, Equinix West Africa), Marco Rebecchi (Country Manager, Nokia West Africa), Josephine Sarouk (Managing Director, Bayobab), Lanre Kolade (MD, Koltronics Nigeria), Gbenga Adegbiji (CEO, Geniserve), Tola Talabi (CEO, Elektron Energy), Snehar Shah (CEO, IX Africa Data Centres), and Karim Amer (Head of IP Business, Nokia Africa).
About Hyperscalers Convergence Africa
Hyperscalers Convergence Africa, hosted by Africa Hyperscalers, is a premier pan-African digital infrastructure and market engagement platform that connects executives, regulators, and investors to shape the continent’s digital future through collaboration, innovation, and strategic policy dialogue.
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