Nigeria loses about $850 million, equivalent to N1.13 trillion, annually through its reliance on cloud infrastructure provided by a handful of foreign companies, according to research commissioned by global technology philanthropy, Luminate.

The Chief Executive Officer of Luminate, Melanie Hui, disclosed this on Wednesday in Abuja while delivering the keynote address at the Build 2026 Conference, convened by the Nigeria Artificial Intelligence (AI) Collective.

In her address, titled “Africa in the Global AI Order: Towards Equitable Ownership and Shared Prosperity,” Hui said the country’s dependence on foreign cloud infrastructure raised questions about digital ownership and the distribution of economic value.

“Nigeria, like countries across the world, relies heavily on cloud infrastructure provided by a handful of foreign companies. The research we commissioned estimates that this dependency costs Nigeria around $850 million each year,” she said.

Hui stressed that hosting digital infrastructure within a country’s borders did not necessarily translate into ownership or control.

Hui identified Nigeria as an example of how African countries can shape the global artificial intelligence (AI) economy, warning against a future in which the continent remains a consumer of technology, a source of raw data and a supplier of low-paid labour.

Speaking at the Build 2026 Conference in Abuja on Wednesday, Hui said Nigeria’s regulatory interventions, labour organising and home-grown innovations showed that African countries could influence how technology is developed, governed and deployed.

She cited research commissioned by Luminate this year on Africa’s AI landscape, which, she said, found not only patterns of extraction and inequality. It found imagination and leadership.
“Here, there are important reasons for optimism,” she said.

Hui pointed to action taken by Nigeria’s competition authority against Meta over data exploitation and discriminatory practices, saying it demonstrated that global tech companies are not beyond the reach of national institutions.

She also cited Nigerian app-based drivers’ success in securing government recognition for Africa’s first e-hailing trade union as evidence of workers’ capacity to organise and influence the digital economy.

“Nigerian innovators are using locally built, practical technology to serve the underserved: from bringing reliable banking for rural communities to tackling massive crop losses.” she said
Hui’s keynote address, titled Africa in the Global AI Order: Towards Equitable Ownership and Shared Prosperity, called for African countries to move beyond participation in the global AI industry to securing meaningful control over the infrastructure, institutions and decisions shaping their digital future.