Telecom Regulator, Operators Seek Collaboration To Build Africa’s AI-ready Infrastructure

Nigeria’s telecoms regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), and telecoms operators under the auspices of the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) are advocating for urgent collaboration to build Africa’s AI-ready infrastructure in the country.

They spoke at the Africa Hyperscalers event, which convened a high-level virtual forum that brought together the most influential voices shaping the continent’s digital future — from national regulators and telecom operators to cloud providers, hyperscalers, data centre executives, and frontier technology leaders.

The session examined, with uncommon clarity and urgency, what Africa must build to compete in an AI-driven world, spotlighting the foundational pillars of compute, cloud, connectivity, power, governance, and talent as the engines of the continent’s next phase of digital competitiveness.

Delivering the keynote address, themed: ‘AI-Ready Africa: Building the Compute, Cloud, and Connectivity Foundations for the Next Digital Leap,’ the executive vice chairman and chief executive officer at the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr Aminu Maida, stated that, AI has become ‘part of the basic infrastructure of competitiveness, just like roads, power, and ports.

He emphasised that countries that build the right foundations will unlock new productivity, new jobs, and new opportunities, while those that do not will find themselves consuming other people’s innovations instead of shaping their own.

The NCC boss highlighted the compute divide, the algorithmic divide, and the data divide as Africa’s most urgent gaps. We risk being stuck as AI consumers, not AI creators, he said, emphasising the Importance of locally governed data and African-relevant models.

He reiterated the NCC’s commitment to connectivity expansion, open-access frameworks, cloud adoption, data centre development, cybersecurity, and adaptive regulation, noting that “the digital future is a shared future.”

In his keynote on ‘The Future of AI in Telecoms – Opportunities and Challenges for Nigeria,’ (ATCON president, Tony Izuagbe Emoekpere underscored the scale of change ahead, noting that AI is no longer theoretical in telecoms.

He highlighted opportunities in predictive maintenance, smarter customer engagement, network optimisation, and operational intelligence – while calling for stronger industry coordination to accelerate adoption.

After Vertiv’s presentation on AI-ready infrastructure solutions, the keynote panel -themed ‘Building the Right Infrastructure for AI-Driven Telecom Networks’ and moderated by the CEO of Open Access Data Centres, Dr Ayotunde Coker- delivered sharp, practical insights into Africa’s AI readiness.

Speakers included Bukola Ajayi, general manager, Architecture and Enterprise IT, MTN Nigeria; Kendall Ananyi, chief executive officer, Tizeti; and Oladejo Olawumi, director – IT Infrastructure Solutions, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA); Mike Salem, vice president/chief information security Officer (CISO) and Group Head of Artificial Intelligence, IHS Towers; Wilson Eigbadon, Regional Account Manager, Vertiv; Engr. Babagana Digima, head, Cybersecurity and Internet Governance, Nigerian Communications Commission and Dotun Adeoye, Co-Founder, AI in Nigeria.

Bukola Ajayi of MTN stressed that “the countries with the strongest infrastructure discipline will lead in AI,” noting that, energy and connectivity remain decisive enablers.

On the power challenge, Wilson Eigbadon of Vertiv emphasised that Africa is entering an era where ‘data centres will have to bring their own power,’ pointing to new gas corridors and decentralised power policies as opportunities for more reliable energy.

Talent development emerged as a strong theme. Dotun Adeoye of AI in Nigeria highlighted that with 63 per cent of Nigerians under 25, “the future depends on how early we train the next generation.”

Collaboration was repeatedly emphasised across speakers. Mike Salem of IHS noted that Africa will only progress “if infrastructure providers, carriers, hyperscalers, government, and investors work as an ecosystem,” adding that, “no company can build AI infrastructure alone – collaboration is not optional.”

NITDA’s Oladejo Olawumi reinforced the importance of data sovereignty, noting that ‘data is the currency on which AI runs,’ and warning that Africa must ensure its strategic datasets remain local, trusted, and interoperable.

Africa Hyperscalers continues to champion the collaboration needed to strengthen Africa’s digital backbone across data centres, cloud, connectivity, power systems, and AI infrastructure.