When you think of Nigeria’s digital backbone, the conversation usually begins and ends in Lagos. The country’s tech capital is home to most of the nation’s high-end data centres, the kind of infrastructure that keeps fintech apps, streaming platforms, and banking services alive around the clock. Abuja holds a smaller share. Beyond these two hubs, the map has been mostly empty. That is about to change.
Technology company Nugi Group has announced plans to build a Tier 4 data centre in Calabar, Cross River State, a bold move that could reshape the geography of Nigeria’s digital economy.
“Calabar offers lower operating costs and a first-mover advantage,” said Ugi Augustine, President and Solutions Architect of Nugi Group. “The location also aligns with tourism, being near Calabar Airport and Africa’s largest street festival, the Calabar Festival.”
But cost isn’t the only reason. The site is situated near a natural waterfall, which will power hydroelectric turbines. It has sufficient land for a solar grid designed to store energy for up to four months, and also has access to natural gas that can be converted into electricity. In short, the project isn’t just about building a data centre, but resilience.
Why Tier 4 Matters
To the average person, a “Tier 4” label might not mean much. In data centre terms, though, it is the gold standard. Facilities at this level promise 99.99% uptime. That’s about one brief disruption per year, compared to weeks of downtime in lower-tier centres. Achieving this requires redundant power, cooling, and connectivity systems so that no single point of failure can bring the servers down.
Nigeria has fewer than 20 Tier 3 and Tier 4 facilities combined, nearly all clustered in Lagos and Abuja. That shortage forces many businesses to store data abroad, slowing services and raising security risks. Nugi’s Calabar centre could help plug that gap, bringing global-grade reliability to a region that has long been left out.
For Augustine, this isn’t just about powering Nigeria’s apps and banks. It’s about rewriting the investment map. “The future of Nigeria will always come back to Cross River,” he said. “The state holds resources vital for the country’s development. By building here, we are making a case for decentralisation, moving focus beyond Lagos and Abuja.”
That’s a deliberate statement in a country where infrastructure projects often pile into the same few cities. If successful, it could spark confidence for investors to explore untapped regions across Nigeria.
A High-Stakes Bet Beyond Lagos
The construction phase alone is expected to create hundreds of jobs for local engineers, builders, and service providers. Once operational, the centre will open doors for tech workers in Calabar and beyond.
On the business side, banks and fintechs stand to benefit most immediately: fewer failed transactions, better uptime, and faster processing speeds. But the vision goes further. Augustine believes that with enough local infrastructure, global platforms like YouTube, Facebook, and Netflix will be nudged to store more data domestically. That means quicker streams for users, and new revenue streams for Nigeria.
Nigeria’s digital economy has been growing fast, with fintech, e-commerce, and cloud services leading the way. But the country has consistently lagged behind South Africa and Kenya when it comes to local data hosting. By anchoring a Tier 4 centre in Calabar, Nugi Group is placing a bet: that Nigeria’s next digital leap won’t be limited to Lagos.
If the investment pays off, the project could mark the start of a more balanced, more resilient digital economy. If not, it will still stand as one of the most ambitious infrastructure experiments outside Nigeria’s tech capital. Either way, Calabar is no longer just about carnivals and tourism. Soon, it could be known as the city that helped rewrite Nigeria’s digital future.
