TerraHaptix, Africa’s leading drone manufacturer, has announced plans to export its high-performance drones, locally made in Nigeria, to the United States and Europe by the end of 2024.
The company, co-founded in Abuja by 21-year-old Nigerians Nathan Nwachukwu and Maxwell Maduka, is the continent’s sole drone producer.
This milestone marks the first time drones manufactured in Africa will reach these international markets.
Speaking at the Terra Expo 2024 held over the weekend in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nwachukwu, who is also the company’s chairman, highlighted the event’s focus on showcasing Nigeria’s advancements in robotics, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and drone technology.
Nwachukwu noted that TerraHaptix’s Archer drones are already being exported to Ghana, Ivory Coast, and Congo. Since their launch, the company has received over 300 orders for the drones.
He said: “We have gotten over 300 orders for Archer X. We are now exporting the Archers to Ghana, Ivory Coast, and Congo, and on the 26th of this month we are exporting to the USA.
“This is historic. For the first time in history African-made drones will go to the USA. It changes everything and it shows America that they do have an alternative”.
Appraising the drone industry, Nwachukwu said Africa remained the fastest-growing drone market in the world with a market worth over $40bn.
“Africa is the fastest growing drone market in the world. Right now the market is worth 40 billion dollars. There are over 15,000 licensed drone operators in the continent, 100 to 150 drone servicing firms, and one manufacturer.
“There are many opportunities because we have the highest insecurity and we are the less automated anywhere in the world”, he said.
He said Nigeria lost over 50 billion dollars in the last five years following insecurity in the oil, mining and agricultural sectors because of inefficient methods of securing the country’s critical infrastructures.
Nwachukwu warned against depending on Western countries particularly China for sensitive technological products like drones.
He said apart from compromising national security, drone manufacturers from developed countries were not offering after-sales service, maintenance and operational guides.
He said: “If you buy a drone from China and other Western world they just dump it on you, no training and sales support. There are many drones sitting idly. These are some issues Africa is facing. They don’t care about us and they don’t take us seriously.
“They will sell their worst system to Africa. Many of our customers are people guiding the most critical infrastructures of our nations. These are systems you don’t want the foreigners there because they will spy on you and they are of national security interest.
“These are some of the issues why we need to build our own indigenous drone industry. It is as important as drilling our own indigenous oil or construction industry. China alone produces over 7 million drones a year; Russia about 2 million and the rest of Europe about a million. It is time Africa woke up and this is the core mission of TerraHaptix”.
Nwachukwu said the company decided to organise the Terra Expo 2024 to inspire people, especially the young ones and emphasise the need to build indigenous technologies to speed up industrialisation.
He said: “Nigeria and Africa cannot work without industrialisation and we can’t industrialise with Fintech. We need hardware innovation. We need to build indigenous technologies to help our political industry.
“We just want to show just what is capable from Nigeria. TerraHaptix is my second company within five years. I am trying to solve our security crisis with TerraHaptix. We chose the drone industry to help solve the critical problems that we have. It has helped to secure pipelines and other critical assets.
“Our system can help provide a more automated security network to help protect our critical infrastructure. Today our drones both aerial and ground have been deployed to pipelines and farmlands to help protect what human eyes may not see.
“Humans have different disadvantages. We get tired and unable to spot everything. But our technologies don’t get tired. Our systems provide surveillance 24/7 to identify threats and neutralise them. We produce 7000 drones annually”.
In his remarks, the Project Manager, TerraHaptix, Mr. Tosin Adesina, said most of the materials used by the company to produce its aerial and land drones were sourced locally.
He said the drones were designed to solve security challenges of mining, agriculture and crude oil production.
Adesina said: “We don’t just produce drones, we also manufacture unmanned aerial vehicles which can be functional for mine and oil and gas industry, security and defence. They use these drones for surveillance. We are producing these materials locally to strengthen security and TerraHaptix is the leading drone manufacturing company in Africa.
“We have the vision to become the biggest drone manufacturing company in Africa. We have the right collaboration with the government and the military. Currently, the factory in Abuja has an annual production capacity of more than 7000 and we are trying to double the number by 2025.
“One of the greatest challenges we have in the country is security. We want to ensure that investors can protect their investments in mining, security, and agriculture including oil and gas.”
He described the $40bn worth of drone market in Africa as small compared to other investments in the sector in developed countries.
“We need to ramp up the figures to nothing less than 200 billion to 500 billion dollars. Technology is evolving in Nigeria. Maxwell is a graduate of Yabatech in Lagos and today he is producing drones and robotics-powered equipment. Nigeria is growing”.
