Acronis, which specializes in data protection services provision, announced yesterday it has opened a center in Lagos, Nigeria. This is the first center of its kind in Nigeria, but the second in Africa. The first is in Johannesburg, South Africa.

“The opening of the Nigerian data center is part of the Acronis Global/Local Initiative, an effort that includes global management for all data centers, geographic redundancy, and control for local partners, and a local disaster recovery site - all with competitive pricing,” the company said in a statement.

The opening of such a center in Nigeria is in close line with the recent digital developments in Africa’s most populous country. Last year, Nigeria captured $1.4 billion in VC investments, out of $4 billion for the whole continent. The ugly side of this performance is the growing cybersecurity issues in the country. According to the global cybersecurity index 2020 published by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Nigeria is still lagging regarding data protection, ranking 47th out of 182 countries.

“Today, the world depends so much on data to the point where we can say data is life, and data security cannot be over-emphasized. We at Madonna Systems are so proud to be associated with Acronis, a foremost leader in cyber protection. With the opening of their new Data Centre in Nigeria, Acronis demonstrates its level of commitment to the African Market,” said Chidi Oliseowe, Team Lead at Madonna Systems Nigeria Limited.