US technology firm Arista Networks is stepping up its push into Nigeria’s enterprise technology market with energy-efficient networking systems targeted at banks, telecom operators and large-scale digital infrastructure providers.
This comes amid rising interest in Nigeria’s data centre market from global infrastructure providers and technology companies, fuelled by growing cloud adoption, rapid fintech growth, and increasing demand for digital services across banking, telecommunications, and other industries.
The American company, in partnership with MART Networks and Resourcery Plc, hosted an industry event in Lagos recently, themed ‘Efficiency Meets Performance – The Arista Advantage’, bringing together executives from the telecommunications, financial services and information technology sectors.
The discussions centred on how organisations can build faster and more reliable digital infrastructure while reducing operating costs and energy consumption in a market where power supply remains a major challenge.
Speaking at the event, Managing Director of Resourcery Plc, Andrew Ejoh, said companies in the technology sector must continually evolve in response to changing market realities or risk becoming obsolete.
Ejoh pointed to the collapse of NITEL as an example of what happens when organisations fail to adapt to technological change.
According to him, technology solution providers also have a responsibility to expose customers to innovation and help them make informed investment decisions.
“The more knowledgeable someone is, the easier it is for you to sell your market to them,” Ejoh said, noting that informed customers are better positioned to ask the right questions before deploying infrastructure.
He also dismissed concerns about market saturation, arguing that Nigeria’s economy and population are large enough to accommodate multiple players in the enterprise infrastructure space.
“The market is big enough for everyone,” he said, adding that different providers would naturally serve different customer segments based on need and scale.
Ejoh explained that Arista Networks operates primarily in the business-to-business enterprise segment and is not a mass-market, consumer-facing company.
“Most of what we offer to the market, we are not very exposed to,” he said, adding that many of the company’s engagements are highly technical and industry-specific.
Arista’s value proposition in Nigeria is energy efficiency, as organisations increasingly deal with rising electricity costs and the operational demands of running modern data centres and enterprise networks.
Territory Account Manager for West Africa at Arista Networks, Jide Olagbenro, said customers are prioritising infrastructure that delivers strong performance while reducing energy consumption.
“Power is a real issue here,” Olagbenro said. “You don’t want devices that consume too much energy. That is one of the reasons customers are turning to Arista.”
He added that Arista’s solutions are already deployed across key sectors in Nigeria, including financial institutions and large industrial operators, reflecting growing regional adoption.
“We are seeing strong adoption in this market,” he said. “But we need to keep working closely with our partners to expand that reach.”
Regional Sales Director for sub-Saharan Africa at Arista Networks, Marius Keown, said the company’s global presence is supported by strong demand from major cloud and content providers.
“Some of the biggest platforms in the world run on our network,” Keown said. “They would not invest at that level if the technology did not perform.”
He added that Arista’s expansion strategy is driven more by engineering strength and product reliability than by aggressive marketing.
“We focus on building solid technology and letting the results speak,” he said.
Head of Business Development for sub-Saharan Africa at Resourcery Plc, Ify Chukwuma, said the company’s long presence in Nigeria has helped it develop deep market understanding.
“We’ve been in business for 40 years. That tells you we understand this market,” Chukwuma said. “What we do is align technology with business needs and deliver solutions that are cost-effective and intelligent.”
She added that partnerships with global technology providers are critical for delivering large-scale infrastructure projects, saying, “We can’t do this alone. That is why we partner with global players like Arista to bring value to customers and give them peace of mind.”
Country Manager at MART Networks, Esther Oyedokun, said distribution, training and local technical support remain key to successful deployment across African markets.
“Our goal is simple, to empower businesses with the right technology,” Oyedokun said. “We don’t just supply products; we provide training, pre-sales and post-sales support, and ensure our partners are fully equipped.”
She added that access to local stock and technical expertise helps reduce deployment delays and improves service delivery.
Technical discussions at the event also focused on energy efficiency and data centre operating costs.
Product Manager for Enterprise Networking at MART Networks, Faith Oladapo, said Arista’s networking systems can reduce power consumption by up to 30 per cent in certain environments.
“Our switches can reduce power consumption by up to 30%,” Oladapo said. “In a data centre environment, over time, that becomes very significant.”
She added that Arista’s unified operating system across its product range simplifies deployment and reduces licensing complexity.
“We use a single operating system across our products. That makes deployment easier and reduces costs,” she said.
Oladapo also warned about the circulation of unsupported and counterfeit networking equipment in the market, stressing the need for controlled distribution.
“One of the problems in the market is the spread of unsupported or counterfeit products,” she said. “We manage distribution carefully to ensure customers get genuine, fully supported solutions.”
As part of its Nigeria strategy, Arista and its partners said they would focus on building local engineering capacity and expanding technical training programmes to support adoption.
“We are investing in training partners and engineers, because they are the ones driving adoption on the ground,” Oladapo said.
