Zoho, a global technology company, says 93 per cent of Nigerian companies have adopted artificial intelligence (AI), while 84 per cent strengthened privacy measures.
The Country Head of Zoho Nigeria, Kehinde Ogundare, disclosed this during Zoho’s 2025 User Conference, Zoholics Nigeria, held in Lagos on Monday.
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He said a study conducted by Arion Research for Zoho showed that over half of Nigerian firms had moved from experimenting with AI to applying it organisation-wide.
He noted the report also found 94 per cent of companies now had a privacy officer or team, while 40 per cent allocate major IT budgets to privacy.
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Mr Ogundare said the findings proved Nigerian businesses were adopting AI responsibly, with privacy now a central part of their strategy.
“This reflects Zoho’s philosophy of building privacy-first AI tools that help businesses grow while protecting customer trust,” he said.
He added that 65 per cent of organisations reported increased awareness of regulations since the introduction of Nigeria’s Data Protection Act.
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“Many firms now conduct privacy audits of AI systems (57 per cent), apply data minimisation (57 per cent), and demand explainability of AI decisions (52 per cent),” he said.
According to him, 69 per cent of businesses invest in data analysis skills, 53 per cent in AI literacy, and 40 per cent in prompt engineering for generative AI.
He, however, noted that lack of technical expertise remained a barrier for 37 per cent of firms, though many were responding through upskilling.
Alongside the report, Mr Ogundare revealed that Zoho achieved 75 per cent customer growth in Nigeria in 2024, making it one of its strongest African markets.
He said growth was driven by products such as Zoho Workplace, Zoho Books, Zoho Campaigns and Zoho One, with demand from financial services, IT, energy, education, media and retail.
He explained that this growth underscored how Nigerian businesses were accelerating digital adoption to scale and compete.
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“We continue to invest in Nigeria as companies here embrace technology to grow and compete globally,” he said.
Chief Analyst at Arion Research, Michael Fauscette, said Nigeria’s model showed AI and privacy could go hand in hand.
“When 84 per cent of firms strengthen privacy while using AI, it shows governance is not a barrier to innovation but a competitive advantage,” he said.
(NAN)
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