Noting this in an interview with Techeconomy, Dr Krishnan said, “Data domestication is a legal requirement of any continent. The data must remain within the sovereign borders of the country. Which is a must, which is a mandate, and which we are pushing through the ministry as well as NITDA, and the Data Protection Commission,” he said.

“This is happening as of now, and it’s a process, so over a period of time, we will get it 100% right.”

Africa Data Centres, a subsidiary of Cassava Technologies, operates one of the largest network-neutral data centre platforms on the continent. And as Nigeria tightens its data localisation policies, the company is helping to build the country’s long-term digital sovereignty infrastructure, ensuring that sensitive workloads stay local, not on foreign servers.

But building a data economy that can handle that responsibility isn’t simple. Beyond compliance, the stakes are national, data is becoming a new form of sovereignty, determining a country’s digital independence.

When asked about the growing wave of AI, Dr Krishnan Ranganath pointed to both progress and challenges. “AI workloads are beginning to increase as of now. And of course, the networks need to fall in place. We have a lot of issues on the networks and connectivity side that is falling in place bit by bit,” he said.

“Once some of the ongoing projects fall in place, that latency part will reduce. Because Nigeria is not just Lagos alone. It goes out to other parts of Nigeria, which is, you know, a home for 180 million remaining Nigerians.”

He pointed out that AI won’t scale if the rest of the country remains poorly connected. For years, Lagos has carried the digital load, but expanding reliable connectivity and infrastructure across other regions is now essential if Nigeria wants to compete in the AI phase.

AI adoption, in particular, depends on strong, distributed infrastructure, something data centres like Africa Data Centres are striving to build across the region.

Still, even the most advanced data centres can’t operate without steady electricity, and that’s where Nigeria continues to find it tough. Unreliable electricity continues to drag on the growth of digital services.

On this, Dr Krishnan Ranganath said, “Power always remains an issue in Nigeria, especially the transmission is the biggest issue for power. Otherwise, you know, we have decent enough power generation in Nigeria.”

He believes collaboration between data centres, operators, and independent power producers (IPPs) is the key to keeping servers online. “Collaboration between various data centres and operators along with IPPs is the way forward, which I see,” he explained.

“Of course, we talk about a lot of atomic power and other related stuff, but we are not ready for that as of now, to my understanding, because the government needs to put frameworks for that. But to start with, better collaboration between the data centres, operators, and IPPs, that takes us a long way.”

That kind of realisation, balancing vision with practical limitations, defines Africa Data Centres’ approach. The company is part of a pan-African drive to build the backbone of the continent’s digital economy. 

In Nigeria, this means laying the foundation for a phase where data sovereignty, AI innovation, and energy sustainability converge.

Companies like Africa Data Centres are taking a chance that these gaps can be bridged with consistent investment, strategic partnerships and patient execution..

At GITEX NIGERIA 2025, global players talked about scaling AI and cloud adoption across Africa, but Dr Krishnan’s perspective was grounded in the realities on the ground: local data, stable power, and connected networks. Without these, the continent’s AI vision might still be waiting for the lights to stay on.

That, in a nut: when creators ask “which AI is best for me?” and enterprise leaders ask “which AI can I trust with my contracts and secrets?”, the answers diverge. I tested, poked, and prodded, now here’s a full breakdown: which is truly creator-friendly, and which is enterprise-friendly.

How Big Are They Now?

Before we dig into strengths and weaknesses, here are recent facts (so you know this isn’t amateur hour):

• ChatGPT currently tops the user aspect with 800 million weekly active users in 2025.
• It reportedly generated 78.3 billion tokens in a single day in September 2025, usage peaks when classes resume.
• According to market share estimates, ChatGPT holds ~82.7 % of the global chatbot space.
• Google Gemini, backed by Google’s large ecosystem, has pushed “AI Plus”, a $5/month plan now available in over 40 countries, bundling tools like Flow, video creation, NotebookLM, and 200 GB cloud storage.
• Internally, Gemini 2.5 Pro, with multimodal and reasoning enhancements including a 1 million token context window, is in experimental rollout.
• Claude has made strong moves in enterprise space: in 2025 the number of business users reportedly rose from under 1,000 to over 300,000.
• Anthropic has announced it will triple its international workforce to support expanding demand.

In short: ChatGPT is everywhere. Gemini is pushing affordability and integration. Claude is scaling enterprise demand.

What Creators Really Want

Creators, including writers, designers, coders, marketers, don’t care about “models” or “architectures.” They want tools that are like an extension of their mind. Here’s how each brand stands.

• Ease and Accessibility: ChatGPT provides strong apps, browser access, and a wide plugin ecosystem. Gemini is deeply integrated with Google apps like Docs and Sheets, making it seamless inside Google’s stack. Claude offers a clean interface and good API access but has a smaller ecosystem.
• Creativity and Versatility: ChatGPT does great in generative content, images, and audio (via integrations). Gemini supports multimodal input—image, video, text—and includes an experimental “thinking mode.” Claude is strong in long-form reasoning with safer output constraints.
• Customisation and Personality: ChatGPT allows for many custom GPTs, plugins, and persona fine-tuning. Gemini provides some prompt hints, native Google tie-ins, and active experiments. Claude takes a “constitutional AI” approach to govern responses, safer but less flexible.
• Community and Extensions: ChatGPT has the largest developer and creator community with countless plugins. Gemini has fewer external plugins but strong first-party tools. Claude has a smaller, more curated ecosystem.

My Take (for Creators)

For creators, ChatGPT is the most battle-tested, eclectic, and flexible. You want to generate a blog post, code snippet, design prompt, or ad copy, it handles all. Gemini is gaining fast in rich-media tasks (image, video) and isolation in Google’s suite, but it still lacks the breadth of third-party extensions. Claude is thoughtful, precise, and safer for complex writing, but you may hit limits if you push into really “out-there” creativity.

So: for creative freedom, go ChatGPT. Use Gemini when you’re already inside Google’s world. Use Claude when you want safer, long-form output and are okay with slightly fewer bells and whistles.

What Enterprises Really Care About

Enterprises care less about generating a witty tweet than about compliance, risk, use at scale, data integration, and reliability. Here’s how the three differentiate.

Data Privacy and Compliance: ChatGPT provides strong control but sometimes faces regulatory trust issues. Gemini, coming from Google’s infrastructure, is robust but has issues with risky AI outputs. Claude markets itself strongly on safety, guardrails, and transparency.

Integration and Ecosystem: ChatGPT integrates deeply through Microsoft’s Copilot, plugins, and APIs. Gemini fits naturally within Google Workspace and Cloud. Claude is improving its API and tool use, and Microsoft has added Claude into Copilot as an alternate model choice.

Scalability and Consistency: ChatGPT has proven scalability but can show output variability; Gemini 2.5 is improving reasoning for more stability; Claude emphasises consistency, with “Constitutional AI” designed to reduce risky outputs.

Pricing and Licensing: ChatGPT offers enterprise tiers with flexible licensing. Gemini benefits from Google’s enterprise cloud bundling. Claude’s enterprise adoption is growing rapidly, reflected in its soaring business user base.

My Take (for Enterprises)

If I were running a company in Nigeria or Kenya, I’d trust Claude slightly more when compliance, safety and regulation matter (legal, finance, healthcare). Gemini wins if you’re deeply invested in Google’s tools already, you get seamless workflow and comfort. ChatGPT is not far behind; with its ecosystem and scale, it’s the “generalist safe bet.” But for truly sensitive tasks, I would lean Claude.

Features (Recent Updates You Should Know)

Here are some feature face-offs that tip the balance:

• Token/context windows: Gemini 2.5 Pro experiments with 1 million token context windows, allowing it to handle huge documents. 
• “Thinking mode / chain-of-thought”: Gemini’s “thinking experimental” mode lets it show reasoning steps. 
• Claude’s extended reasoning & tool use: Claude introduced ability to use tools in parallel and extended “thinking” modes in recent Opus / Sonnet models.
• AI Plus affordability: Google’s $5/month AI Plus plan (with Gemini 2.5 Pro access) is available now in 40+ countries.
• Microsoft’s shift in Copilot: Microsoft is letting users switch between OpenAI and Anthropic (Claude) models inside Copilot’s “Researcher” tool.

These tweaks are highly important. For example: if I hand you a 200-page PDF, who digests it best? That’s where context windows and tool use matter.

Side-by-Side

Here’s a quick at-a-glance summary:

• For pure creative breadth, ChatGPT remains the best.
• For multimedia and tool integration, Gemini shines—especially within Google’s ecosystem.
• For safety and regulated use, Claude leads.
• For hybrid usage, ChatGPT is the most flexible.
• For enterprises in regulated industries, Claude is most dependable.

Verdict & Advice (Practical Takeaways)

• If you’re a creator building content, marketing, designs, pick ChatGPT. It’s the Swiss army knife.
• If your workflow is deeply inside Google’s universe (Docs, Sheets, Slides), Gemini may give you frictionless results.
• If you run or plan to run a business in the sectors where compliance and trust are important, Claude should be your test subject.

But don’t view this as a strict hierarchy. Use two side by side: draft in one, polish in another. Use Claude for review and safety, and ChatGPT or Gemini for creative breadth.

For Africans, it’s also important to watch local latency, pricing in naira, interface availability, and customer support in your region, those frictions usually matter more than model specs.