AI agents I build for Nigerian businesses

An AI agent is software that can understand a request, decide what to do next and take action in your tools: reply to a customer, check an order, update a record or alert a member of staff. Unlike a basic chatbot that follows a fixed script, a well-built agent works from your real information and knows when to hand over to a person.

Every agent I build starts from one question: where is your business losing money, time or customers today?

Customer support agents for WhatsApp, Instagram and web chat

Most Nigerian customers would rather send a WhatsApp message than fill a form. A support agent replies at any hour, answers from your current prices, policies and FAQs, keeps context across the conversation and routes complaints, refunds and sensitive cases to your team with a summary attached.

Sales and lead qualification agents

When you run ads or post on social media, enquiries arrive faster than a small team can answer them, and the slowest reply often loses the sale. A sales agent responds within seconds, asks your qualifying questions, recommends the right product or package and books a call, inspection or appointment for your sales team.

Operations and back-office automation

Agents can read invoices and documents, update spreadsheets and CRMs, prepare daily reports, chase approvals and flag exceptions. The goal is to give hours back to the people who keep the business running, without asking them to change every tool they already use.

Orders, payments and collections

Connected to payment platforms such as Paystack or Flutterwave and to your order records, an agent can confirm orders, share payment links, give delivery updates and send polite reminders before invoices go stale, so cash comes in faster and fewer orders fall through the cracks.

Internal knowledge assistants

A private assistant grounded in your SOPs, product documents, contracts and policies helps staff find accurate answers quickly. It reduces dependence on the one person who knows everything and makes onboarding new staff faster.

HR and recruitment agents

Screening applications, scheduling interviews and keeping candidates informed takes time. Drawing on the thinking behind Vera, Unovia's AI hiring product, I build recruitment agents that handle the repetitive steps while people keep the final decision.

Who I work with

AI agents pay off fastest where a business handles a high volume of similar conversations or tasks. In Nigeria, that includes:

  • Retail and e-commerce brands selling through Instagram, WhatsApp and their own websites.
  • Real estate developers and agencies handling property enquiries, inspections and payment plans.
  • Clinics, hospitals, labs and pharmacies managing appointments and patient questions.
  • Schools and training providers answering admissions and fees enquiries.
  • Logistics and delivery companies giving tracking updates and handling exceptions.
  • Hotels, restaurants, shortlets and event businesses managing bookings.
  • Fintechs, cooperatives and financial services firms supporting customers at scale.
  • Law, accounting and consulting firms organising knowledge and client intake.

How a project works

  1. Discovery. We choose one workflow where speed, volume or cost hurts most, map how it works today and agree what success means in naira, hours or response time.
  2. Prototype. I build a working agent on your real questions, documents and data so your team can test it before any full rollout.
  3. Deployment. The agent goes live on your chosen channels with clear guardrails, human handoff, access controls and a record of what it says and does.
  4. Improvement. We review conversations and results, close gaps and expand to the next workflow once the first one has proven its value.

Why work with me

I build products, not just demos. Through Unovia Technologies I am building Lana for AI workspace management, and Iris and Vera for careers and hiring. ThisDay covered the launch of Lana as Africa's first AI-powered workspace management platform.

I understand revenue. Before technology, I spent more than three years as a top-selling realtor and built a sales team that generated billions of naira in sales. I know what a missed enquiry costs, and I design agents around the numbers that matter to a business owner.

I build for Nigerian realities. WhatsApp-first customers, naira budgets against dollar-priced AI services, unreliable power and data, mixed English and Pidgin, and the Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023 are design requirements, not afterthoughts.

I explain AI clearly. As a TEDx speaker and lecturer on artificial intelligence, I make sure your team understands what the agent does, where its limits are and how to get the best from it.

Tools and platforms

The right stack depends on the job, your budget and the systems you already use. Typical building blocks include:

  • Large language models from Anthropic, OpenAI and Google, or open-source models where privacy or cost requires it.
  • Channels such as the WhatsApp Business Platform, Instagram, web chat, email and voice.
  • Payments through Paystack, Flutterwave and bank transfer workflows.
  • Business tools including Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, CRMs, spreadsheets and custom databases.

Questions about hiring an AI engineer in Nigeria

How long does it take to build an AI agent?

A focused first agent for one workflow can often be prototyped within a few weeks. Timelines grow with the number of systems the agent must connect to and with approvals such as WhatsApp Business verification, which is why I recommend starting small and expanding.

How much does an AI agent cost in Nigeria?

Cost depends on scope, channels and integrations. Plan for the build, running costs such as AI model usage and WhatsApp messaging fees, which are often billed in dollars, and ongoing improvement. A project should be scoped against a measurable result, such as more leads answered or hours saved, before you commit.

Do I need a technical team to use an AI agent?

No. I handle the design, build and deployment. Your business needs someone who owns the workflow, can approve the information the agent uses and reviews results regularly.

Can an AI agent understand Pidgin, Yoruba, Hausa or Igbo?

Modern language models handle Nigerian English, Pidgin and mixed-language messages reasonably well and can work in Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo, but quality varies by model and task. Agents should be tested on real customer messages before launch, with a clear route to a person whenever the agent is unsure.

Is my customer data safe with an AI agent?

Agents should be designed with the Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023 in mind: collect only the data needed, control who can access it, keep records of what the agent said, tell customers when they are speaking to AI and give them a route to a person.

What happens when the AI agent gets something wrong?

Good agents are built to fail safely. They answer only from approved information, escalate when unsure, log every conversation for review and are improved continuously from real mistakes rather than left to drift.