KEY POINTS
- MTN Nigeria and First WATT Renewable will deploy 34MW of solar across critical network sites nationwide.
- The deal includes 40MWh of battery storage at data centers, switching centers and cable landing stations.
- Renewable energy will also power 60kW EV charging stations at eight MTN locations across Nigeria.
Nigeria’s telecom operators spend hundreds of billions of naira every year keeping their networks alive on diesel. MTN Nigeria has decided it is done subsidizing that problem.
The telecoms giant has announced a strategic partnership with First WATT Renewable Limited to deploy large-scale solar photovoltaic generation and battery energy storage across critical telecommunications facilities nationwide. The deal provides approximately 34 megawatts-peak of solar capacity and 40 megawatt-hours of battery storage at selected MTN facilities.
The sites involved are not peripheral. They include data centers, switching centers, cable landing stations and customer service locations. These are the backbone facilities that support millions of daily voice calls, data sessions and mobile money transactions. Keeping them running on diesel has been expensive and unreliable.
The partnership is structured around two components. The first is an Energy-as-a-Service deployment that installs solar and battery infrastructure at MTN’s critical sites. The second focuses on electric vehicle charging infrastructure, supplying renewable energy systems to support 60-kilowatt EV charging stations at eight MTN locations in Ikoyi, Matori, Ojota, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Asaba, Kano and Ibadan.
A deal built for reliability, not just sustainability
The business case is straightforward. Nigeria’s electricity grid remains unreliable. Telecoms operators carry the cost of that unreliability through diesel bills that eat directly into operating margins. Solar and battery storage changes the math. It reduces fuel dependency, stabilizes energy costs and provides a more predictable power supply than the grid currently offers.
Beyond cost, the initiative directly improves network reliability. Uninterrupted power is not optional in telecommunications. Outages affect service quality, customer experience and business continuity. A stable renewable energy base reduces that risk significantly at the sites that matter most.
Where Nigeria’s digital and clean energy ambitions meet
The combination of solar generation, battery storage and EV charging positions the partnership at a specific intersection. Nigeria’s digital economy is expanding. Data consumption is rising. The energy demands of telecom infrastructure will only grow alongside those trends.
MTN’s move reflects a calculation shared by a growing number of corporate operators across West Africa. Diesel is not a long-term energy strategy. It is an expensive interim measure that companies have tolerated because alternatives were unavailable or unaffordable at scale. First WATT’s Energy-as-a-Service model removes the upfront capital barrier, allowing MTN to access solar infrastructure without bearing the full cost of ownership while still capturing the operational savings.
