• In recent years, AWS has been looking to increase its presence on the African continent. 
• This has resulted in its first office being opened up in Lagos, Nigeria. 
• The offices will assist in supporting startups, enterprises and public sector agencies in the region to shift to AWS Cloud.

It has been four years since Amazon Web Services spun up its local data centres in South Africa, with it serving as a point of presence for the rest of the African continent. Now AWS is looking to expand its presence, not with new data centres, but rather with offices in Lagos, Nigeria.

Here AWS says its new Lagos office is part of the company’s move to support the growing number of customers and partners it has in Nigeria. To that end, the office will support a myriad of organisations, including startups, enterprises and public sector agencies, specifically when it comes to transitioning to the AWS Cloud.

“We are excited to open our first AWS office in Nigeria. 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,” noted Amrote Abdella regional manager of Sub -Saharan Africa at AWS.

“We look forward to fostering the country’s pioneering spirit and helping our customers accelerate their digital transformation as they deliver innovative new products and services to the Nigerian community,” they added in a press release sent to Hypertext.

The move has also been welcomed by the Nigerian government.

“The Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy welcomes the opening of the new AWS office in Lagos,” Professor Isa Ali Ibrahim, the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy enthused.

“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 programs of Amazon Web Services support the development of such platforms and we look forward to partnering with AWS to accelerate the implementation of NDEPS, the minister continued.

With AWS viewing Nigeria as one of the fastest-growing technology hubs on the African continent, the launch of offices in Lagos makes up part of plans to leverage that.