Telecom operators in Nigeria have revealed that over 90 per cent of the data centres in Nigeria are located in Lagos, Nigeria’s economic centre due to insecurity and economic challenges.

Speaking at the West Africa Telecoms Infrastructure Summit and Exhibition (WATISE) organised by Technology Mirror in Lagos, Chief Executive Officer of Coloplus, a tower infrastructure company, Mr. Mike Ofili, said it would be difficult to achieve the 70 per cent broadband target of the country with almost all the data centres in Lagos.

“I can tell you that 90 per cent of the data centres in Nigeria are in Lagos and I don’t know how you want to achieve 70 per cent broadband penetration in Nigeria with almost all the data centres in Lagos.

“It is very difficult to lay fibre cable across many communities in Nigeria, you cannot cross any community without paying different people. You cannot build towers without going through different communities of people demanding all kinds of things. If you don’t meet their demands, they will either not allow you to deploy or vandalise your equipment after you have left

“There are many states we cannot go to because to lay fiber in those states, you will need heavy security. In fact, we have lost many of our engineers to insecurity in the North while trying to deploy infrastructure.”

Ofili, however, noted that to deploy infrastructure in some communities that are considered important, the operators have to negotiate with the people and align with them.