When Huawei launched in Nigeria in 1999, two years earlier than its telecommunications revolution, completely a couple of people might presumably presumably hold predicted it could per chance presumably presumably perchance change into the country’s largest telecoms provider and get one in every of the country’s largest enterprise commerce.
In 1999, it entered a market with assorted substantial-title avid gamers admire the Chinese multinational ZTE, Nokia, the Finnish giant, and Sweden-essentially based Ericsson. These corporations fashioned tools manufacturers (OEMs) doubled as infrastructure and service providers to telecom corporations admire MTN and Airtel. ZTE, as an illustration, change into instrumental in building MTN Nigeria’s 2G and 3G networks.
Whereas ZTE and Ericsson hold trimmed their operations within the final two a protracted time, Huawei has been on the ascendancy, growing its provider and enterprise commerce. This day, its offerings encompass networking tools admire routers, firewalls, switches, servers, and storage devices; it offers details centre solutions and cloud providers and products and deploys choices admire cell wallets for its prospects.
Huawei’s success in Nigeria is all of the map in which down to a mixture of its pricing design and a fearless resolution to give quit-to-quit solutions to prospects in a market the put its competitors in most cases settle specialisation.
“Whereas IBM and Dell are synonymous with storage, and Cisco specializes in networking and security, Huawei offers everything by competing in every the provider and enterprise corporations,” an industry insider with details of Huawei’s commerce told TechCabal.
Huawei declined to order on any a part of this legend.
A roll-call of ambitious projects
Huwaei has offered servers and storage solutions for prime Nigerian banks admire UBA, Zenith, Gain entry to, and Fidelity. Other ragged banks Huawei serves encompass Keystone, First Financial institution, Unity Financial institution, UBA, and FCMB.
In May per chance also 2023, a hearth at Zenith Financial institution’s predominant details center prompted a service downtime, and attempts to swap to its distress recovery center additionally failed, two people told TechCabal.
That incident is believed to hold convinced Zenith—a tier-1 bank with a market capitalisation of ₦1.1 Trillion—to signal a $10 million contend with Huawei for a storage resolution, two people with recount details of the deal stated.
Chinese-backed Huawei has secured assorted significant offers in Nigeria. Galaxy Backbone, a executive-owned web IT shared providers and products provider, is one in every of its largest customers. Huawei is building two details centers for Galaxy, stated one particular person unsleeping of the mission.
These details centers are a part of a broader mission known as the National Info and Verbal substitute Technology Infrastructure Backbone (NICTIB). The first a part of the controversial mission change into performed in 2018 and the 2nd part—valued at $328 million—change into additionally shriveled to the Chinese firm.
Huawei has handled projects for the Lagos insist executive, the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), the Central Financial institution of Nigeria (CBN), Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), and Ikeja Electric. It change into additionally a Technical Accomplice for the Nigeria Customs Modernisation Project in 2022.
Earlier than Huawei, there change into Ericsson
Ericsson change into the market leader amongst cell telecommunications distributors in Nigeria since 2009, stated one particular person unsleeping of the firm. The Swedish firm’s largest customers had been MTN and Airtel. On the time, Nokia and Alcatel had already misplaced significant market share and had been beating a retreat, per two people with industry details.
But issues began to alternate in 2014 as Huawei began its march to dominance by poaching quite a bit of Ericsson workers. It then went after its Swedish competitor’s customers subsequent.
Huawei had a model: ‘You would exhaust our tools now, you don’t hold to pay upright away,’ stated an ex-Ericsson worker.
“Very fast, they had been able to procure over most of the market share that Ericsson had. It change into very straightforward for cell telecommunication corporations to swap out Ericsson to establish costs.”
Not like Ericsson which completely catered to telcos, Huawei had bigger ambitions.
Jack of all trades
Handling managed providers and products is one in every of the most profitable corporations within the telecommunication industry. No longer completely attain OEMs get paid for repairs, nonetheless they’ll additionally propose solutions to operators that involve procuring for more providers and products or tools. Huawei benefitted enormously from this.
Huawei’s predominant design is to promote one resolution to a consumer after which fabricate particular it upsells all its assorted inventory, per a particular person unsleeping of the firm’s pondering. “Huawei likes to unbiased itself as the resolution for every shopper,” the actual person stated.
Huawei currently offers managed providers and products to Galaxy, Lagos State executive on the enterprise side, per a particular person unsleeping of the firm.
On the telco side, its customers encompass MTN and Airtel. It has additionally constructed details centres for Zenith Financial institution, MTN, Seplat Petroleum, and the Lagos insist executive, per one particular person with recount details of the offers.
In 2020, MTN launched a Tier III details center constructed by Huawei. In 2021, Cloud Alternate, a gadget integrator IT firm, launched Africa’s first uptime institute tier IV modular prefabricated details center in collaboration with Huawei.
Huawei additionally offers cloud providers and products. Opay, the Chinese fintech, runs on Huawei’s cloud structure, a particular person with recount details of the subject stated. The cloud commerce is now a separate commerce entity, the actual person added.
Huawei’s executive playbook
Huawei entered the manager and enterprise commerce in 2015. The shift to enterprise change into strategic, eager by Nigeria’s space as the firm’s significant African market. “We ask it [Nigeria] to reside the amount-one global market for enterprise commerce,” Frank Li, Huawei Nigeria’s Managing Director at the time, stated in a 2018 interview.
The firm secured an office in Abuja, the nation’s capital, the seat of the federal executive, hoping to get a stronger relationship with the manager. That hasten has generated outcomes.
Huawei now handles predominant contracts for the Nigerian executive and in 2023, the firm change into awarded the National Productiveness Advantage Award by the Nigerian executive.
By August 2004—barely 5 years into the market, Huawei had invested more than $10 million into its Nigerian practising center. By 2018, the figure had risen to $76 million. In December 2023, it launched a scholarship program in partnership with the Ministry of Communications, innovation, and digital economy.
The firm additionally invests in practising workers and prioritises details transfer.
Yet, Huawei’s success legend in Nigeria is no longer without controversy. There hold been allegations of sad pay and exploitation of workers at Huawei Nigeria.
In 2022, Nigeria’s Rental of Representatives investigated a memorandum of thought signed by the manager and Huawei for the National Info and Verbal substitute Technology Infrastructure Backbone (NICTIB).
Despite these considerations, Huawei has been unscathed because of the its shut relationship with the manager, claimed two people unsleeping of the firm.
One thing is sure: Huawei is here to preserve. If it retains its market share despite the presence of some contemporary upstarts, the firm will proceed to profit massively from Nigeria’s tall telecoms market.