shocking but is, as Johnson emphasises, empowering – roughly half will leave the continent within 24 months, heading to the UK, Canada or the US, or returning to higher education.“ We celebrate them,” Johnson says,“ and we hope that, one day, they will come back to the continent to create value.”
Data sovereignty is another dimension Johnson approaches from first principles. Because AI systems require enormous volumes of data to function, this data needs to be processed by compute infrastructure in close physical proximity to avoid latency. Delay caused by data travelling long distances further drives home to Johnson the importance of keeping data, compute and the people who work with both in the same geography is, he argues, simply rational.
Looking ahead to the next 18 months, Johnson is focused on two parallel priorities: onboarding the hyperscalers and enterprise customers who will anchor the flagship facility and democratising access to compute for Nigeria’ s developer community.
“ At the moment, they lack access and opportunity,” he concludes.“ How do we lead in that context? It’ s about who else is willing to step up and lead with us.” sustainabilitymag. com 137