MainOne MDXI Lekki Data Center

The story

Located along the Lekki Peninsula in Lagos, Nigeria, MainOne's MDXI facility opened in 2015 as West Africa's first commercial Tier III carrier-neutral data center. Connected directly to the MainOne transatlantic subsea cable, MDXI solved Nigeria's crippling latency bottlenecks, enabling Nigerian banks, fintech pioneers, and international clouds to peer directly inside Lagos. Powered by a dedicated on-site natural gas power plant to bypass local grid failures, MDXI was acquired by Equinix in 2022.

Notable

• West Africa's first purpose-built, carrier-neutral Tier III certified commercial data center.
• Directly connected to the MainOne 7,000 km subsea cable system linking Nigeria to Europe.
• Houses the Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria (IXPN), handling major national web and banking traffic.
• Acquired by Equinix in 2022 as its primary strategic beachhead on the African continent.

Expansions

• 2022: Acquisition of MainOne by Equinix for $320M, integrating MDXI into Equinix global IBX fabric
• 2023: Launch of MDXI Lekki II facility adding 10 MW of high-density capacity