'30,000 drones a year': African start-up looks to emulate Ukrainian UAV revolution by taking a leaf out of Apple's playbook

• Terra Industries scales drone production to provide security for power plants, mines, and refineries
• Local manufacturing cuts costs while raising new questions about production sustainability
• Annual subscriptions introduce financial risk for clients in unstable economic environments

A Nigerian robotics startup is building thousands of drones each year to protect critical infrastructure across Africa.

It is applying a vertically integrated manufacturing strategy that draws inspiration from Apple rather than traditional defense contractors.

Terra Industries, founded in 2024 by two young Nigerians — 23-year-old Maxwell Maduka and 22-year-old Nathan Nwachuku — launched what it calls the largest drone factory in Africa in February 2025.

Factory scale and early deployments

The company has a 15,000-square-foot facility on the outskirts of Abuja, Nigeria, capable of producing 30,000 drones annually.

It is already exporting to eight African countries and Canada, protecting an estimated $11 billion worth of assets, including power plants, lithium mines, gold mines, and oil refineries.

Rather than assembling components from third-party suppliers, Terra Industries develops and manufactures its software, airframes, propellers, and lithium-ion battery packs in-house.

However, some sensors and cameras are imported from nations including South Korea; keeping core production internal helps provide much safer data security.

The AI-powered software, called ArtemisOS, collects surveillance data from multiple systems, analyzes it for threats in real time, and alerts response teams when dangers are detected.

By manufacturing locally, the company claims initial hardware purchases are up to 55% cheaper than international competitors, with savings passed directly to clients.

The company is achieving all these with little funding, raising less than $600,000 while reaching $1.9 million in revenue.

In May 2026, Terra won a $1.2 million contract with private security firm NetHawk Solutions to deploy AI-powered drones and surveillance towers at two hydroelectric power plants in Nigeria.

Terra has partnered with local cloud platform PipeOps rather than global firms to maintain data sovereignty.

Clients pay for the Terra software on an annual subscription basis, and without an active subscription, the hardware ceases to function.

For user data, they remain in Africa. Co-founder and CEO of Terra, Nathan Nwachukwu, said: “We must keep the data within African hands.”

This not only saves costs but also helps protect sensitive information from global leaks.

Terra’s playbook could be emulating the Ukrainian drone revolution, which showed how relatively low-cost unmanned systems could reshape modern security operations across both military and civilian contexts.

However, whether Terra’s vertically integrated model can sustain output at 30,000 units annually while maintaining consistent quality standards remains to be seen.

There is also uncertainty around the company’s ability to deliver reliable software updates across regions with uneven connectivity and infrastructure limitations.

Furthermore, its reliance on annual software subscriptions raises concerns about how clients handle budget constraints or delayed payments in these markets.

Via CNN

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