Huawei has officially launched its Agentic AI Cloud in Nigeria, marking a significant transition in its strategic operations from conventional cloud services to locally hosted, enterprise-grade Artificial Intelligence infrastructure.
Unveiled at the Huawei Nigeria AI and Cloud Summit 2026 in Lagos, this movement reflects the company’s progressive push toward localising AI computing capabilities, building upon its earlier deployments of a hyperscale local cloud in 2024 and local data-cloud services in 2025.
Speaking at the event, Roc Bai, Managing Director of Huawei Cloud Nigeria, stated that the company has evolved “from cloud provision to local Agentic AI Cloud,” positioning the new platform as the foundational infrastructure for Nigeria’s next phase of digital adoption.
The initiative directly addresses key market challenges faced by Nigerian enterprises—including data security concerns, computing capacity limits, latency issues, and high deployment costs. Bai noted that Huawei’s approach rests on three pillars: AI capability, data localisation, and robust trust and security.
“Data stays home. Value stays home,” Bai emphasised, reinforcing how keeping data and compute workloads local supports Nigeria’s National AI Strategy and the regulatory framework established by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA).
Representing Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, Director-General and CEO of NITDA, Mr. Oladejo Olawumi underscored that sustainable AI adoption requires deep-level infrastructure investments. “AI applications rely on models; models rely on compute; compute relies on cloud services and robust data centres,” he noted, adding that Nigeria must build a fully integrated tech stack spanning power, connectivity, cybersecurity, and local technical skills.
NITDA further highlighted that “digital sovereignty should not be confused with technological isolation.” The agency stressed that attracting international technology partners and global capital is vital for advancing domestic capacity, allowing Nigeria to transition from an importer of foreign tech to a regional producer of AI-driven economic value.
Addressing market options, Austin You, CEO of Huawei Nigeria, explained that enterprises can either construct private on-premise infrastructure—which offers full control for highly regulated applications but requires high capital and months to deploy, or leverage local cloud services to launch AI operations within weeks under a flexible cost model.
Highlighting Huawei’s 27-year presence in Nigeria, You expressed strong confidence in the domestic market, citing Nigeria’s talent base of over one million developers, its expanding digital payments market, and its dynamic enterprise ecosystem. To support local ecosystem growth, Huawei has established a regional ethical operations centre in Nigeria and plans to expand partnerships with local startups, developers, and system integrators.
The practical impact of locally hosted AI is already being demonstrated. Bukola Ajayi, CIO at MTN Nigeria, noted: “Nigeria has the foundation to lead Africa’s digital era. MTN’s commitment is to turn that foundation into intelligent, customer-first services — through engineering ownership, deliberate partnerships, and an architecture built for AI from day one,” driving a shift toward predictive, network-wide management.
Similarly, Olayinka Oni, Executive Director at Sterling Bank, shared: “The future of financial AI in Nigeria is about building intelligence that is trusted, locally relevant, secure and accountable — intelligence that creates lasting value for Nigerians.” To deliver this, the bank leverages Huawei’s local cloud for customer onboarding, statement analysis, and internal knowledge management under total data compliance.
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