Facing the vast Atlantic Ocean, just off the corridor where the ambitious Lagos–Calabar coastal road stretches toward Nigeria’s eastern flank, a massive technology campus is quietly reshaping the country’s digital ambitions. Spread across 42 hectares of coastal land in Lekki, Lagos, the Kasi Cloud development does not resemble the conventional image of an industrial project. Instead, it feels like a long-term wager on Nigeria’s place in the global artificial intelligence and cloud computing economy, one anchored in steel, concrete, fibre optics and megawatts of power.
As sea breeze moves across half-finished concrete shells, towering steel frames and carefully cleared expanses of land, the sheer scale of the project becomes unmistakable. This is Kasi Cloud, a hyperscale data centre campus founded by technology entrepreneur Johnson Agogbua, and widely described as Nigeria’s first data centre built specifically for artificial intelligence workloads from the ground up. In a country with roughly 17 operational data centres, none exceeding 20 megawatts of capacity, Kasi Cloud’s vision of scaling to 100 megawatts marks a dramatic departure from the norm.
Globally, hyperscale AI campuses now routinely target 50 to 100 megawatts or more, driven by the explosive growth of GPU-powered computing. Modern AI racks, often drawing between 50 and 150 kilowatts per rack, have rendered older enterprise data centre designs obsolete. Nigeria’s existing facilities, built primarily for traditional enterprise and cloud workloads, were never engineered for this density. Without new infrastructure, experts warn, the country risks being locked out of the next phase of global digital innovation.
“This is not a retrofit,” Agogbua said during a site tour of the campus on January 25, 2026. “This was designed for AI from day one.” DDM NEWS gathered that Kasi Cloud broke ground on the project in April 2022, with active construction commencing in the second quarter of 2023. The development, valued at about $250 million in its initial phase, represents one of the largest private digital infrastructure investments in Nigeria’s history.
Kasi Cloud expects to complete its first 5.5 megawatts of capacity by April 2026, with commercial operations slated for the second quarter of the year. While that figure may seem modest in global hyperscale terms, it is only the first step in a carefully staged expansion plan that ultimately aims to deliver up to 100 megawatts of sellable power across the campus.
At the heart of the site stands the first building, a six-floor structure that immediately signals its hyperscale ambitions. Four of its floors are dedicated entirely to data halls, each engineered to support up to 8 megawatts, giving the building a total designed capacity of 32 megawatts. The initial 5.5 megawatts will occupy one floor, which will later be upgraded to the full 8 megawatts as demand grows.
According to Kasi Cloud, government approvals already permit the construction of four such facilities on the campus. However, the campus-wide power and density design means that, at full AI load, only three buildings may ultimately be required to reach the 100-megawatt threshold. Ngozika Agogbua, Global Director of Marketing and Sales Operations, explained that while power could be redistributed to stretch across four buildings, the current configuration prioritises density and efficiency over symmetry.
Even in its unfinished state, the building’s proportions stand out. Ceilings are unusually high, corridors wider than typical Nigerian data centres, and reinforced concrete columns appear thick and closely spaced. Agogbua frequently pauses during the tour to emphasise that every structural choice reflects future needs rather than present convenience. “If you don’t design for where you’re going on day one, you’ll pay for it later,” he said, underscoring a philosophy that runs through the entire project.
DDM NEWS understands that power infrastructure was treated as the first and most critical design priority. Instead of conventional cable bundles, Kasi Cloud relies on massive solid busbars—rigid copper or aluminium conductors capable of carrying thousands of amps. These busbars, housed in insulated modular channels, allow power to be tapped efficiently along their length, offering both flexibility and resilience as tenants scale.
The facility is configured with four independent high-voltage feeds, providing fully redundant A and B power paths. This ensures that even if one or two feeds fail or require maintenance, operations can continue uninterrupted. “We’re bringing all four lines in here, not just two,” Agogbua explained, noting that resilience is engineered rather than assumed. Dry-type transformers, housed in dedicated electrical rooms, further shape the building’s design, influencing everything from door dimensions to installation sequencing.
Where many Lagos data centres are built to support rack densities of 5 to 10 kilowatts, Kasi Cloud is designed for a far broader range, from 10 kilowatts up to 100 kilowatts per rack. This capacity is essential for modern AI systems driven by GPUs and accelerators. One section of the building is reinforced specifically for high-density AI halls, including support for liquid cooling that brings coolant directly to the rack and even down to the chipset.
Cooling, often the loudest and most energy-intensive component of a data centre, has been reimagined at Kasi Cloud. Magnetic-drive technologies reduce mechanical noise, while air-handling units more than four metres tall manage hundreds of kilowatts of heat each. Triple HEPA filtration systems scrub salt and dust from incoming air, a necessity given the site’s proximity to the ocean. The result, Agogbua said, is an environment where engineers hear airflow rather than machinery.
Below ground, lithium-ion batteries power uninterruptible power supply systems housed in reinforced bunkers. Their higher energy density, longer lifespan and faster recharge cycles make them better suited to AI workloads, where even brief power interruptions can corrupt training runs or crash clusters. Above them, layered fire suppression systems reflect a sober acknowledgment of risk. Lithium-ion batteries do not require oxygen to burn, making fire control complex and unforgiving. Gas-based suppression, specialised chemical agents and last-resort containment measures are all part of the design. “You don’t cut corners here,” Agogbua said bluntly.
One of the most striking spaces on the campus is the meet-me room, where telecom operators interconnect. DDM NEWS observed that the room is larger than some entire data centres currently operating in Lagos. Two such rooms, positioned north and south, will house dense fibre infrastructure, with ducts buried at standard depths of 1.8 metres to avoid future disruptions as capacity scales.
Economically, building AI infrastructure at this scale is costly, particularly in Nigeria, where specialised equipment is largely imported and supply chains are fragile. Industry estimates suggest that a fully built 100-megawatt data centre campus can cost between $900 million and $1.5 billion globally. Yet Agogbua believes the investment is unavoidable if Africa is to claim a meaningful stake in the AI era. Currently, the continent accounts for less than one percent of announced global GPU capacity.
Beyond economics, Kasi Cloud is framed as a play for data sovereignty. Hosting data locally reduces costs, strengthens regulatory enforcement and allows Nigerian developers to build cloud-native products without relying on foreign infrastructure. Agogbua argues that Nigeria could become a regional anchor for ECOWAS, mirroring the European Union’s approach to data residency.
As roads, drainage and community agreements continue to take shape around the campus, the long-term vision extends beyond a single facility. Kasi Cloud aims to attract network operators, tower companies and service providers, creating a digital ecosystem rather than an isolated fortress.
Though the first building remains unfinished, with exposed cabling and bare floors awaiting final finishes, the direction is clear. For Agogbua, the question is not whether Nigeria can build world-class infrastructure, but why it ever accepted less. Kasi Cloud, he insists, is proof that capability is not the constraint—intent and discipline are.
