AVEVA, the British industrial software company, is scaling up its presence in Nigeria as part of a broader Africa expansion strategy, with a focus on local talent development and industrial AI adoption.
Speaking at AVEVA Day Nigeria, Khaled Salah, the company's Vice President for Africa, said Nigeria has emerged as one of the company's most strategic markets on the continent, citing the country's young population, deep oil and gas expertise, and government-led transformation initiatives including the National Identification Number programme and data regulation reforms.
AVEVA recently restructured its Middle East and Africa operations into two standalone markets, with Salah taking charge of the Africa division. The company is prioritising six countries: Nigeria, Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, South Africa, and Kenya.
Salah emphasised that AVEVA is committed to an "Africa for Africa" approach, tailoring its technology and operating model to local realities rather than importing rigid global templates. "We cannot simply bring global standards and push them into Africa without adaptation," he said.
The company's investment strategy includes strengthening partnerships with local technology resellers, providing training and continuous learning support, and engaging universities across Nigeria. AVEVA plans to equip university laboratories with its solutions so engineering students can gain hands-on experience with industrial software before graduation.
On the technology front, Salah drew a distinction between general generative AI and what AVEVA calls "industrial AI." He argued that the real value of AI lies not just in identifying problems but in recommending and triggering physical-world actions — such as adjusting operations or sending maintenance instructions.
Salah identified scalability as the biggest obstacle facing Nigerian manufacturers. He noted that many organisations remain stuck at the pilot phase, running isolated AI experiments without scaling successful implementations across their entire operations. The transition from pilot to enterprise-wide deployment, he said, represents the next major inflection point for the Nigerian market.
AVEVA works with customers through a three-stage process: gap analysis to assess digital maturity, implementation of software solutions, and adoption support to ensure engineers fully utilise the technology. The company has worked with about 90% of the world's major oil and gas companies, giving it a deep understanding of common industry pain points.
AVEVA's push into Nigeria reflects broader trends in the country's technology ecosystem, where global firms are increasingly looking to tap local talent and support digital transformation across energy, manufacturing, and infrastructure sectors.
