Amazon Web Services (AWS) has opened its second-largest office in Africa in Lagos, Nigeria five years after setting up a similar office in Johannesburg, South Africa.
The move demonstrates the company’s commitment to investing in Africa, bringing its core businesses to the continent. The new station will house account managers, partner managers, and solutions architects to grow and support businesses across the continent.
“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,” said Amrote Abdella, regional manager of Sub -Saharan Africa at Amazon Web Services.
Big-Tech companies have increased their interest in the continent, with Google, Microsoft, Facebook, IBM and Visa setting up offices across Africa’s most vibrant cities. Nairobi, Johannesburg and Cape Town benefiting from these developments.
In April last year, AWS also announced plans to launch an AWS Local Zone in Kenya. The new AWS Local Zone(s) in Kenya will join 16 existing AWS Local Zones across the United States and an additional 32 AWS Local Zones planned to launch in 26 countries around the world starting in 2022. AWS Local Zones deliver single-digit millisecond latency performance at the edge of the cloud to hundreds of millions of people worldwide.
The increased number of startups in Africa has increased the demand for cloud computing, hence the need to set up servers closer to organizations that need their services. AWS has its services across 26 regions in the world, and 8 more are under development.
It is estimated that Africa’s internet users will double to 483 million by 2025 up from 239 million in 2018, signifying that cloud-based services will be in high demand.
