Global cloud services provider Oracle has revealed that the rate of adoption of cloud services is increasing in Nigeria.

Adebayo Sanni, Country Manager (Nigeria) for Oracle Corporation, said, "We are experiencing adoption increase in Nigeria as customers continue to seek cheaper yet secure and reliable options that offers them choices. Oracle is able to offer these choices to our Nigerian customers; paying for only what they consume (cloud), owning the licenses (on premise) or a blend of both (hybrid)," Sanni said.

He outlined where cloud is making a difference to the country's trade and industry saying that financial institutions are embracing ERP & HR Cloud to standardise financial reporting; telecoms operators are deploying SaaS to deliver customer experience, while local oil and gas firms are consolidating management reporting via BI Cloud.

In addition to enterprise integration and application, the company is aiming its cloud services at the SME sector. "Oracle sees cloud services as a huge opportunity in the SME space, we have spent the last decade rewriting our entire portfolio of products specifically for the cloud today, we saw this revolution coming many years ago."

Value of cloud

Sanni noted that the value of cloud services is on the increase and the company's cloud service has entered a hyper-growth phase. "Our SaaS & PaaS revenue grew sixty-one percent when compared with year-earlier quarter, a clear indication of cloud adoption increase, especially with Oracle customers."

He believes globally cloud services will hit the US$110-billion mark before 2020 and, at full maturity, businesses will be able to save more than US$150-billion.

"Cloud adoption in Nigeria is expected to significantly increase as companies focus more on speed of innovation and pay as you consume model, significant cost savings in billions of Naira will be achieved over the next few years," Sanni said.

Tech challenges remain

In the midst of Nigeria's booming tech ecosystem, Sanni said the country still lacks manpower for its ICT infrastructure. "With increased access to the Internet in Nigeria, we have seen huge growth and mobile access has significantly fueled the growth of ICT. The big challenge I see is around skills to support this technological growth ... as we continue to build IT infrastructure, Nigeria lacks skilled resources to support the growth. With more than sixty five percent of Nigeria's population less than twenty-five years old, this challenge should be seen as an opportunity to build an IT services-led country, as an alternative to our energy dependence."

"The responsibility to deliver this lies with both the government and private companies who need to play a key role in supporting skills development."