MTN targets 150MW of AI data centre capacity in Nigeria and South Africa with Tarek Al Ashram's UAE-based investment platform - Capacity
The news comes as MTN Digital Infrastructure confirmed the identity of its UAE-based partner: Dubai-based data centre developer Tarek Al Ashram, founder of Gulf Data Hub. MTN’s half-year results for the six months to 30 June 2026 disclosed that MTN Digital Infrastructure had, after the reporting period, entered a strategic partnership with a UAE-based data centre investment platform “to accelerate the development of AI-ready.
” The deal is being pursued through a new joint entity, Africa Data Hub Holding Limited, which MTN says will be used to develop and scale future digital infrastructure projects in African markets, starting with South Africa and Nigeria.
A separate workshop on Nigeria’s digital infrastructure opportunity will examine where investment is flowing across the country’s fibre, data centre and cloud ecosystem, and what Nigeria’s 2027 Data Localisation Directive could mean for AI and data centre investment specifically.
- 01Look for the first named pilot, project, customer deployment or delivery milestone under AI access to data.