Amazon Web Services (AWS) has on Tuesday announced the opening of it’s office, the first of it’s kind in Nigeria.
The Nigerian office which will be situated in Lagos, South West Nigeria is coming 5 years after AWS opened it’s first office in Johannesburg, South Africa.
The latest expansion of AWS physical networks is expected to bring it closer to African startups after already supporting a number of Nigerian startups like as SeamlessHR, Yellow Card, BFree, Bankly and public sector organisations.
AWS’s new Lagos office will be part of the company’s latest investment in Africa as it will house teams of AWS account managers, partner managers, solutions architects, and other roles that will encourage the Nigerian user population.
AWS sub-saharan Africa regional manager, Amrote Abdellawhile speaking on the new Lagos office said:
“Lagos offers a highly skilled and creative talent pool, and the area is home to many fast-growing startups and notable Nigerian enterprises leading the way in digital innovation”.
The African continent has over the last six years played host to international cloud companies who are excited to develop data centres and establish their presence in Africa.
In March 2019, Huawei launched two data centres in South Africa while it said it would expand to Nigeria later. That same month, Microsoft announced its first Azure data centre in Cape Town and Johannesburg.
Just last month, Google launched its foray into the Africa market with the announcement of its first African Google Cloud region in South Africa.
The incursion of these cloud companies into the continent is an indication that African connectivity and cloud computing market is generating interest globally, with the opportunities therein immense.
The increase in startups across the African continent, especially software companies has increased the need for cloud computing services even as new businesses would be considering the proximity of cloud servers to locations where requests are coming from in their set up plans. It is a given that the closer these servers are to customers, the lower the latency which in turn improves the quality of services.
Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS) is a subsidiary of Amazon is currently operating in 26 regions globally, with 8 regions said to be under development.
Nigeria’s minister of communications and digital economy, Isa Pantami said while reacting to the new AWS announcement said:
“The Service Infrastructure Pillar of the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS) emphasizes the importance of digital platforms in the development of a robust digital economy. The programmes of Amazon Web Services support the development of such platforms and we look forward to partnering with AWS to accelerate the implementation of NDEPS.”
AWS has over the years helped Nigerian companies transition to the cloud through AWS Activate, a programme that provides startups with resources like the $100,00 in AWS credits, training, support and contact with incubators, accelerators and venture capital firms.
AWS also helped with educational programmes like the AWS Academy, AWS Educate and the AWS re/Start that equip students, educators, and startups on knowledge and skills on AWS cloud computing.
The University of Benin, University of Jos and the IgbinedionUniversity are part of the AWA Academy member institutions in Nigeria.
The AWS re/Start programme also takes places in Lagos, Edo, and Benue, three of Nigeria’s major states.
There are over 3,500 members are in the AWS Nigeria user group currently has over 3,500 members.
Ayoola Faseyi, an Abuja based Journalist with interest in Technology and Politics. He is a versatile writer with articles in many renowned News Journals. He is the Co-Founder of media brand, The Vent Republic.
