Huawei Secures Multi-Million Dollar Cloud Deal with UBA, Challenging IBM’s Longstanding Hold on Nigerian Banks

Chinese tech giant, Huawei has made a bold move on the Nigerian banking sector, securing a multi-million dollar cloud deal with United Bank for Africa (UBA), worth approximately USD 3 M.

This agreement, which provides UBA with 200 petabytes of storage and cloud solutions, marks a significant shift as Huawei positions itself as a strong competitor to IBM, a longtime leader in banking technology in Nigeria.

For years, Nigerian banks have heavily relied on IBM for their storage needs, with many Chief Information Officers (CIOs) maintaining close ties to the company to safeguard their positions.

However, growing economic pressures, rising costs, and changes in IBM’s pricing model have made these traditional solutions less attractive, opening the door for competitors like Huawei.

In this new deal, UBA—a bank with over 30 million customers across Africa—chose Huawei for its more cost-effective and scalable storage solutions. The decision comes as UBA’s existing storage infrastructure reached its capacity, creating an urgent need for expansion.

Traditionally, the bank relied on IBM and VMware for storage and virtualization technologies, but VMware’s shift to a subscription model, which nearly tripled its licensing costs after its acquisition by Broadcom, prompted UBA and other Nigerian banks to reconsider their technology vendors.

Huawei has taken advantage of this market shift, offering highly competitive pricing, along with innovative solutions that appeal to banks looking to reduce operational costs.

The Chinese tech giant also throws in a package that includes a unique one-year free proof of concept, making it even more attractive for banks in need of cost-effective storage solutions without high upfront investments.

This move signals Huawei’s intent to challenge IBM’s dominance and establish itself as a major player in the Nigerian banking technology landscape.

But, while Huawei’s aggressive pricing and robust solutions have attracted several Nigerian banks, including Zenith Bank, Fidelity, Opay and First Bank, many banks are hesitant to fully transition to Huawei’s solutions due to data security concerns and the political implications of using Chinese technology for sensitive financial operations.

Some have opted to take a hybrid approach, keeping IBM’s technology for critical workloads while exploring Huawei’s more affordable options for other tasks.

As Nigerian banks continue to modernize their operations, the balance between cost, security, and technological advancement will be required. Huawei’s ability to offer cutting-edge technology at competitive prices, coupled with its willingness to offer risk-free trials is proving to be a viable choice, positioning it well to take on the established players like IBM in the market.

Meanwhile, the company is reportedly in talks with at least one other major Nigerian bank to provide its cloud and storage services.