Airtel Nigeria has announced plans to establish a new subsea cable landing station in Port Harcourt, a major city in the Niger Delta. This new station will serve as a second entry and exit point for international internet traffic, diversifying the country’s digital infrastructure which is currently heavily concentrated in Lagos.
According to Hermanpreet Dhillon, Airtel Nigeria's Chief Technology Officer, "We are coming up with a cable landing station, the second point, which is in Port Harcourt. Right now, the ingress and egress are in Lagos." The move aims to create redundancy and strengthen the country's digital backbone, which is vulnerable to disruption due to its single point of failure in Lagos.
Dhillon stated, "With Port Harcourt coming in as a cable landing station, we will have more and better connectivity to the rest of the world." This new station is also expected to support advanced services like cloud computing and artificial intelligence.
In addition to the subsea cable project, Airtel is also constructing a 38 MW hyperscale data center in Eko Atlantic City, Lagos, which is poised to become Nigeria's largest. The facility is designed to meet the growing demand for cloud and AI services. Dillon explained,
"We are also coming up with a huge data centre which will meet the customer requirements and also understand the AI wave and the digital tools which will bring more and more innovation and more and more information for all of us to work on. I think they play a better role in our investments."
The company's investment strategy extends beyond these two major projects, including new fiber deployments, spectrum acquisition, and upgrades to its existing 2G, 4G, and 5G networks. Airtel is also partnering with satellite internet providers like Starlink and OneWeb to provide backhaul capacity and connect remote areas.
"Apart from new fibre deployments, we are also repairing damaged fibre in our network to improve resilience. In places where fibre cannot reach, we are partnering with Starlink and OneWeb to provide backhaul capacity and connect even the remotest parts of Nigeria," Dillon noted.
Airtel’s capital expenditure in Nigeria increased to $39 million in the second quarter of 2025, up from $38 million in the same period a year earlier. The company's full-year capital expenditure guidance remains at $725 million to $750 million, indicating a continued focus on network expansion and improvements.
The company currently covers 84-85% of Nigeria’s population and is actively working to reach the remaining 15% in remote areas to promote digital inclusion and provide access to essential services like healthcare, education, and finance. This comprehensive investment in international connectivity and domestic infrastructure is expected to result in better network quality for subscribers. Dillon concluded,
"First and foremost, higher speeds, better network stability, and improved accessibility will be delivered. We want to ensure our customers enjoy not just connectivity, but quality connectivity."