U.S.-Iran war: Data centre attacks heighten risks for Nigeria’s digital economy

Stakeholders in the cloud services ecosystem have raised concerns that Nigeria now faces greater risks as attacks in the ongoing U.S.–Iran war shift toward digital infrastructure, particularly data centres.

Beyond the current impact on fuel prices, they noted that an attack on any of the data centres hosting Nigerian data abroad would be more devastating, as most of the country’s critical data powering the digital economy is hosted abroad.

According to reports, Iran is bombing data centers in the Persian Gulf to blow up symbols of the Gulf states’ technological alliance with the United States.

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On Sunday morning, an Iranian Shahed 136 drone struck an Amazon Web Services data centre in the United Arab Emirates, setting off a devastating fire and forcing a shutdown of the power supply.

What they are saying

Speaking with Nairametrics, a Lagos-based cloud security engineer**, Mr Jude Arinze,** said an attack on any of the facilities hosting Nigerians’ data will disrupt digital economy activities in the country.

• “On Monday, millions of people in Dubai and Abu Dhabi woke up unable to pay for a taxi, order a food delivery or check their bank balance on their mobile apps because of the attack on AWS data centre. This could happen to Nigerians if any of those facilities hosting our data abroad is hit,” he said.

According to the Director of Africa Hyperscalers,** Mr Temitope Osunrinde,** Nigerians are currently paying for the war through the high cost of fuel, which jumped from N830 per litre to over N1,000.

He said the bigger concern is the threat to overseas digital infrastructure relied upon by Nigeria, noting that this should be a wake-up call for Nigeria to build local capacity.

• “If geopolitical tensions can expose AI-ready data centers elsewhere, it reinforces the need for countries like Nigeria to expand local data center capacity and strengthen interconnection, ensuring that critical national data can be hosted locally, either as primary infrastructure or as backup to foreign facilities,” he said.

According to him, a significant share of Nigerian data, ranging from financial transactions to health and citizen records, is still processed or stored outside the country.

• “This conflict underscores why digital infrastructure should be treated not just as a technology issue, but as a matter of economic resilience and national strategy.
• “An entire digital economy, including high-value fintech platforms, should not remain dependent on infrastructure located beyond its borders,” he said.

More insights

According to the Chief Executive Officer of the Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria (IXPN), Mr Mohammed Rudman, local content hosting has remained weak in Nigeria despite the rise in the number of data centre facilities in the country.

He noted that Nigeria currently hosts only 22% of the top 1,000 websites accessed by users, compared with Africa’s average of 34%.

He added that even among websites using Nigerian domain names such as .ng, about 80% are not hosted on servers located in Nigeria.

• “Even major Nigerian platforms and media organisations are hosting abroad, despite their audience being largely domestic,” he said.

However, in terms of traffic domestication, Rudman said Nigeria now keeps between 60 and 70% of its internet traffic within the country, a major shift from the early days when almost all data had to travel abroad before reaching local users.

This simply means that when Nigerians browse websites, stream videos, send emails or use apps, the data is exchanged within Nigeria instead of being routed through servers in Europe, the United States or other regions before returning.

What you should know

Before Sunday’s direct attack, AWS had suffered a service disruption on the first day of the U.S.-Iran conflict after a fire incident at its UAE facility.

• According to reports, an unidentified object struck one of its data centres in the United Arab Emirates, triggering a fire.
• The AWS confirmed this in a statement posted on its Health Dashboard. The company said the fire department shut down both utility power and backup generators as firefighters worked to extinguish the blaze.
• The fire broke out on the same day Iranian projectiles struck parts of the UAE. The attacks were part of Iran’s retaliation following US and Israeli strikes that reportedly killed Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and other senior officials.

Iran’s response has since spread across the Middle East. Missile and drone attacks have been launched against US bases and allied targets in several countries.

These include the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia. The developments have heightened concerns about the security of critical infrastructure in the region.

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