Huawei Cloud has launched a startup program for Nigeria where it announced a total of $10 million to support 100 start-ups over the next 2 years.
The launch event which was held at Oriental Hotel, Lagos on Wednesday, April 3, 2024, had over 150 industry startups, venture capitals, and partners in Nigeria gathered to share ideas on startup innovation, ecosystem collaboration, and digital transformation.
The Chief Executive Officer of Huawei Nigeria, Chris Lu, who was represented by the Director of Huawei Cloud Nigeria, Hugo Hu, noted that startups have become the backbone of Nigeria’s economic development hence the need to continually support them to achieve economic prosperity and boost Nigeria’s digital economy.
In his capacity, the Director of Huawei Cloud Nigeria, Hugo Hu noted that the launch of the startup program demonstrates the commitment of the company towards promoting innovation and excellence.
While admitting that the startup ecosystem was booming in Nigeria, Hu noted that Huawei’s Cloud service would help any solutions or services offered by startups to bring about digital transformation.
Also speaking at the occasion, the Ecosystem Director of Huawei Cloud Nigeria, Paul Adigu, reiterated that the Huawei Cloud service has provided an opportunity for many startups to take their businesses to the global market in a faster way.
Adigu stated that the cloud services offered by the company remain the most preferred as it has the capacity to unleash Nigerian startups to the rest of the world.
Listing criteria for start-ups to be successful, he identified them to include sufficient startup funds, innovative technique cloud platforms among others.
Highlighting some of the success stories of Huawei Cloud in Nigeria, he disclosed that the company has not only contributed significantly to ICT development in Nigeria but has also helped to build e-governance for many government institutions.
Speaking on the $10 million investment for the next 2 years on startups, he stated that the investment hopes to prioritize the advancement of cloud platforms, talent development, as well as the sharing of business resources for many startups.
He pointed out that the Huawei cloud platform remains the most agile, cost-effective and self-taught platform which start-ups can easily navigate.
Adigu disclosed that the company’s cloud has been built to provide resources that would help a start-up grow their businesses worldwide noting that each startup stands to benefit from a credit worth $150,000.
While admitting that the road to start-up becoming unicorn was tough and challenging, he advised start-up founders to be convinced that their ideas are creative enough to solve a problem, superior design and coming at the right time the solution was needed.
He noted that there are numerous opportunities for start-ups hosting their solutions/ services on its cloud revealing that it has 50 hubs and 100 venture capitalists available to support them.
Sharing his entrepreneurial journey, Co-Founder of Quidax, Buchi Okoro highlighted some key factors necessary to succeed as a startup and these include making an effort to start, talking to customers and listening, associating with good people, imposing charges on products or services, figuring out what makes money, trusting the process among others.
Contributing to the discourse, the Chief Executive Officer of Feather, Bolu Olatunji stressed the need for startups to foster the idea of collaboration in order to grow noting that it takes an ecosystem for startups to thrive.
At the event, a panel discussion titled “From Startup to Scaleup: Navigating the Growth of Startup in Nigeria” saw different speakers including venture capitalists give insight into their experiences in scaling up start-ups in Nigeria. Some of the speakers who partook in the discussion include CEO of Zeech Africa, David Adeleke; Senior Vice President, of Flutterwave, Dotun Adekunle; Chief Operating Officer of Fintech Nigeria, Babatunde Obrimah; Senior Associate, Verod Keppe Africa, Olivia Gao; and Senior Manager, Huawei Cloud, Nigeria, David Olaiya.
Huawei has thrived in Nigeria and contributed to Nigeria’s digital transformation for more than 24 years. Huawei Cloud aims to build a cloud foundation for an intelligent world leveraging the concept of “Everything as a Service”. Huawei Cloud will launch a Local Cloud in Nigeria in 2024 and has built 88 AZs in 30 Regions around the world.