The high cost of commercial Learning Management System (LMS) hosting presents a significant challenge for African higher education institutions seeking to deliver accessible, high-quality digital learning at scale. This paper presents a case study of the design and implementation of a secure, scalable, and sustainable Moodle ecosystem for over 4,000 students, hosted entirely on locally managed servers using a containerized architecture orchestrated through Portainer. The deployment integrates BigBlueButton for real-time virtual engagement and leverages optimized infrastructure architecture—including Docker-based isolation, resource allocation tuning, caching strategies, and bandwidth management—to deliver stable performance for concurrent course activities such as projects, assignments, and virtual labs. Containerization via Portainer provided flexibility in service management, simplified updates, and facilitated rapid scaling to meet usage demands. A key innovation is the alignment of cost savings with robust cybersecurity measures: role-based access control, encrypted data transmission, secure backups, intrusion detection, and disaster recovery protocols ensure data privacy, integrity, and compliance with institutional and national regulations. Findings demonstrate that local containerized hosting, when paired with well-defined security and scalability strategies, can reduce recurring hosting costs by over 80% while maintaining high system availability and user satisfaction. The implications extend beyond technical efficiency, offering a replicable model for African institutions to achieve digital sovereignty, strengthen data protection, and build resilient eLearning ecosystems.