Wale Ajisebutu, Chief Executive Officer of 21st Century Technologies, and Terry Leung, Chief Executive Officer, Africa Region, China Mobile International Limited at the launch of a partnership between China Mobile and 21st Century Technologies to develop cloud and AI infrastructure in Nigeria, held at the 21st Century Technologies office in Lekki, Lagos, recently.
In a major move for the West African digital economy, Nigeria’s digital infrastructure pioneer, 21st Century Technologies, has forged a strategic partnership with China Mobile International Limited (CMI)—the global arm of the world’s largest telecommunications operator by subscriber count.
The collaboration aims to deploy a localized, highly advanced cloud and Artificial Intelligence (AI) infrastructure platform built directly on top of 21st Century’s massive data center footprint in Lagos.
Rather than a simple preliminary agreement, both companies have confirmed that project implementation is actively underway, with hardware deployment and localization protocols moving toward immediate commercial readiness.
The partnership comes at a critical time as Nigeria aggressively pursues data sovereignty and localizes its digital assets. By layering China Mobile’s global cloud resources, localized software tools, and agile AI incubation frameworks onto 21st Century Technologies’ underlying infrastructure, the joint project aims to give Nigerian enterprises, developers, and government agencies a massive performance edge—at a price point projected to be up to 40 percent cheaper than traditional global hyperscalers like Amazon Web Services (AWS), billed entirely in local currency.
