Chinese technology giant, Huawei, has announced an ambitious initiative to propel its cloud business forward and secure a significant foothold in the Nigerian market with cloud credits totaling $10 million, aimed to support the growth and development of 100 Nigerian startups.

This initiative mirrors the approach adopted by leading cloud service providers like AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure, which offer free credits to attract new clients. Such incentives not only facilitate client onboarding but also enhance customer retention post-credit utilization due to the complexities associated with migrating to alternative platforms. Huawei recognizes that credits alone will not suffice to capture a substantial market share, particularly amid the prevalent desire among Nigerian startups to mitigate expenses related to USD-denominated cloud services and has provided local currency payment options.

Despite being a relative newcomer to the cloud computing arena, Huawei has already secured significant clientele, including prominent entities like its Chinese counterpart, OPay, Eden Life and Feather Africa.

The growing demand for cloud computing services in Nigeria and across Africa has attracted intensified investment from industry behemoths such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure. A recent report by Xalam Analytics revealed that the demand for cloud services in Africa is experiencing robust annual growth rates ranging between 25% and 30%. McKinsey estimates that African companies stand to capture a substantial portion of global cloud, with about 26% of the global cloud value of $3 trillion residing in Africa and Europe ($797 billion).

Different cloud providers have launched in Africa: Microsoft launched its Azure solution in 2018, Alibaba followed with its cloud offering in 2019 and Amazon launched its Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud solution in 2020, with newer entrants including Google and Huawei.