How HPE, IBM undermine Nigeria’s digital ambition, by Ola Adegbite

by · The Eagle Online

While President Bola Tinubu has envisioned building a $1 trillion Nigeria economy by 2030, some Big Tech multinationals, namely Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) and IBM, are working in a reverse order to undermine both the President’s efforts and the economy. It is on record that Microsoft is in the advanced stage of doing the same.

It is an action viewed by Nigerians as unpatriotic and an assault on Nigeria’s tech development and its march to tech sovereignty.

Here is how: In human capital hiring and placement, these Big Tech companies treat Nigerian staffers as second-class citizens in Nigeria, subjugating them under less qualified and far less competent foreigners. Some Nigerian staffers in the employ of these Big Tech say they feel frustrated by the discriminatory treatment being meted out to them. They want Nigeria government to investigate and put an end to the practice of disenfranchising Nigerians.

There is yet another and even bigger threat to Nigeria by these tech multinationals. In recent years, they have increasingly disenfranchised Nigerian corporates from representing them in the country. In place of these indigenous corporates who helped to grow these multinational brands in Nigeria and across the sub-region, the Big Techs have appointed foreign companies as their Nigeria representatives. Some have moved their operational bases out of Nigeria even when Nigeria remains one of their biggest markets in Africa.

Currently, two big tech multinationals have whittled their physical and direct presence in Nigeria. Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) and IBM have quietly handed over their operational oversight on Nigeria to third party foreign consultants, a sharp departure from the old order where indigenous companies drove the markets in Nigeria and even across the West Africa sub-region.

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In 2025, IBM exited and ended direct operations in Nigeria, transferring its local business functions to MIBB, a subsidiary of the Midis Group. This ended the direct representation of IBM in Nigeria by Nigerian corporates. In their stead, MIBB now handles the sale of software, hardware, and services in Nigeria.

The 2025 IBM decision followed the 2018 pathway of HPE which handed the management of Nigeria market to a third-party foreign company, MIDIS, through its local affiliates, to manage and operate HPE’s local market presence within Nigeria.

Implications of their decisions

CAPITAL FLIGHT: The action of HPE and IBM has triggered massive capital flight on the Nigeria economy. These multinationals move huge volumes of forex out of Nigeria thus putting immense pressure on the naira. If this trend is allowed to fester, President Tinubu’s well thought out vision to grow the nation’s economy including the forex reserve will be jeopardised.

RE-COLONISATION: Substituting Nigerian corporates with foreign corporates from representing the big tech multinationals is clearly another form of enslavement and colonial exploitation. Taking responsibilities from Nigerian corporates and handing them over to foreign corporates is against nationalism and patriotism. It is an affront on Nigeria’s local content policy. IBM, HPE and Microsoft should be made to rethink their decisions including other anti-local content decisions they are still proposing. Nigerian corporates who developed the market deserve respect. So does Nigeria. Multinationals must be made to play by the rules and respect the local content policy of the country. Psychologically, Nigerians have become subservient slaves to these foreign corporates who disdain extant local content policy in the nation’s tech space. Paying Nigerian employees working in these foreign firms lower wages than their less qualified foreigners is modern day re-colonisation. It is completely against every sound development logic.

NIGERIA A DUMPING GROUND: This makes Nigeria a dumping ground for technology despite the availability of tech-savvy Nigerian youths. Experts predict that if the Nigerian government does not intervene, the nation would be reduced to a digital dumpsite by 2027. This will psychologically destroy Nigerian corporates and employees, robbing them of the confidence and self-belief they acquired over the past decades while growing the markets for these big tech multinationals.

Treat Nigeria as a special market

These developments are part of a new push to undermine the nation’s digital economy and clip the wings of the high-flying Nigerian tech companies. This Nigeria story became a major matter of concern on the sidelines of a recent conference in Rwanda. A South African tech CEO projected that if such trend continues, Nigeria will be digitally irrelevant in the coming years. The case of Nigeria has triggered more curiosity. Some of the techies who voiced their angst against the development said Nigeria ought to be treated as a special market that should be left in the hands of Nigerian corporates and Nigerians. They cited two reasons: Nigeria is the biggest single market in Africa; secondly, these same Nigerian corporates being pushed aside grew the Nigerian market from infancy to where it is today, a progressive bourse with obvious potential to deliver more returns on investment. Some African experts fear that if the Big Techs succeed in Nigeria, they will use the same substitution template to overrun the rest of Africa.

President Tinubu’s $1 trillion economy vision is premised on strong digitally-driven economic diversification. However, this ambition will be grossly undermined when the control dynamics in the nation’s tech space are taken away from Nigerian corporates and handed over to foreigners.

Jobs and skills adaptation

The benefits of allowing Nigerian corporates to drive the Nigerian market are many. It creates more local jobs; boosts technology transfer; upskills Nigerian ICT personnel; encourages technology transfer as is evident in Asia; and over the years, it reduces import-dependency. It is capable of turning Nigeria into a globally-recognised out-sourcing market just like some Asian countries.

So much can be gained from keeping Nigeria’s digital market in the hands of Nigerians. It is on this note that President Tinubu; Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Dr. Bosun Tijani; Minister of Labour and Employment, Muhammadu Maigari Dingyadi, and NITDA should step out and arrest this descent to digital enslavement.

It’s time Big Techs begin to treat Nigeria with respect. Nigeria has bragging rights. Its unassailable market size in Africa, the growing army of tech-savvy youths and a clement business climate that has over the years boosted the fortunes and portfolios of other multinationals in the ICT and non-ICT sectors are enough indices to earn the country respect.

Enough of abuses

The recent Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission’s (FCCPC) imposition of $220 million fine on Meta (WhatsApp/Facebook) for data privacy breaches and discriminatory practices highlights one of such abuses.

There is also the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) case against Meta for breaching data privacy. This led to a $32.8 million fine against Meta for alleged data abuse which affected 60 million users. A huge chunk of the fine was later waived in favour of compliance commitments with a smaller undisclosed amount paid to NDPC. These two cases underscore the disdainful manner Big Tech have continued to relate with Nigeria. And credit to FCCPC and NDPC for rising to protect Nigerians and ensure that the country is treated with respect.

IBM, HPE, Microsoft and other Big Tech companies doing businesses and earning revenue from Nigeria should be made to conform to the minimum requirements of the Nigeria Local Content Policy in ICT championed by National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) through its guidelines (2013/2019) and backed by Executive Order 003/005.

The same local content, consumer protection and jobs protection rules should be applied to rein in IBM, HPE and Microsoft. The nation’s local content policy must be respected and adhered to. That is justice, fairness and commercial responsibility.

· Adegbite, a public policy analyst, writes from Abuja.

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