Through this partnership, BCN will launch a multi-tenant neutral AI factory powered by Zadara in Nigeria, enabling cloud providers across Africa to modernize their services by enabling the provisioning of high-performance, cost-effective, and resilient AI clouds.
backbone connectivity network (BCN), Zadara, a leading wholesale open access digital service provider; The Sovereign AI Cloud leader has announced a groundbreaking partnership that was formally announced at the recent AfricaCom 2025 conference. Through this partnership, BCN will launch a multi-tenant neutral AI factory powered by Zadara in Nigeria, enabling cloud providers across Africa to modernize their services by enabling the provisioning of high-performance, cost-effective, and resilient AI clouds.
Many cloud providers across Africa are experiencing increased demand for AI services. However, most companies struggle to make the large infrastructure investments needed to build a competitive AI cloud without up-front commitment from customers, and customers are also reluctant to commit to such an AI cloud before it is operational.
To address this “chicken and egg” challenge, BCN is launching a neutral AI factory powered by Zadara’s multi-tenant platform. Zadara was one of the first NVIDIA design and integration partners to enable multi-tenancy for high-performance, scalable NVIDIA AI factories by adhering to the NVIDIA Reference Architecture for Multi-Tenant AI Clouds.
Zadara’s multi-tenancy enables BCN to provision AI clouds for cloud providers from a compact form factor with seamless scalability. This flexible model allows cloud providers to efficiently deploy AI clouds of any size and meet growing AI demands without significant upfront investment.
BCN has long been recognized for its innovation, agility, service excellence and commitment to customer success. With operations across Nigeria and beyond, supported by large-scale open access integrated fiber connectivity infrastructure nationwide, licenses from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), and access to cost-effective energy resources of 2 gigawatts of green energy, BCN is uniquely positioned to launch Africa’s first neutral multi-tenant AI factory.
BCN is supported by the African Infrastructure Development Association Digital Catapult – a digital investment facility aimed at supporting the speed and success of innovative African digital infrastructure developers like BCN. Digital Investment Facility (DIF) is part of Team Europe
Data governance initiatives in Africa under the EU Global Gateway Strategy. Funded by the European Union.
Implemented by the Finnish-German committee GIZ German Development Agency and Haus Finland. AfIDA is an association of leading developers, funds and development finance institutions active across the African continent.
“We congratulate BCN and Zadara on their partnership and wish both companies success in bringing cutting-edge computing to West Africa.”
– Yassin Bendjebbour On behalf of DIF-AfIDA Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ) Digital Investment Facilities Team Lead
“Our partnership with Zadara enables us to deliver Africa’s first Neutral AI Factory. Cloud providers across Africa need a trusted partner to supply the AI cloud infrastructure that powers their services. BCN needs multi-tenant AI cloud software that can provision a secure, cost-effective, business-specific AI cloud from our Neutral AI Factory. We are working with Zadara to make that vision a reality.”
– Mr. Ibrahim Dikko, BCN CEO
“We are excited to partner with BCN to launch Africa’s first neutral multi-tenant AI Factory. Together, we will leverage BCN’s neutral factory, Zadara’s advanced multi-tenant software, and NVIDIA’s industry-leading AI Factory. Together, we will help cloud providers across Africa accelerate their transformation into the AI era. This collaboration will deliver scalable, secure and cost-effective AI to accelerate innovation and drive digital growth across Africa.”
– Yoram Novik, Zadara CEO
