# An AI agent for businesses in Nigeria

> An AI agent for Nigerian businesses that answers on WhatsApp, Telegram and your website from your own content, in English and Pidgin, books in WAT and hands off to your team.

Canonical: https://heykiko.io/ai-agent/nigeria
Last updated: 2026-11-07

Kiko learns your website, catalogue and price list, then answers your customers on WhatsApp, Telegram and your website chat in English or Pidgin. It confirms what's in stock, books appointments in West Africa time, captures leads, and hands the chat to your team when a person is needed.

## What Kiko does for Nigerian businesses

- **Answers from your own content**: Kiko reads your website, PDFs and price lists and answers only from them (retrieval-augmented generation, or RAG), with the page or file each answer came from. It doesn't make up a price or a phone number. [Learn more](https://heykiko.io/features/train-on-your-website)
- **Support that hands off**: When a customer asks for a person, or your knowledge doesn't cover the question, Kiko hands the chat to your team in a shared inbox with the whole conversation. [Learn more](https://heykiko.io/features/human-handoff)
- **Sales and leads**: Kiko answers product questions, recommends from your catalogue and asks interested customers for their details, so your sales team in Nigeria gets a lead with the conversation attached. [Learn more](https://heykiko.io/features/lead-capture)
- **Bookings in your time zone**: Kiko offers your real open times in West Africa time (WAT, UTC+1), books the one the customer picks and adds it to your Google Calendar. [Learn more](https://heykiko.io/features/appointment-booking)
- **Answers from your database**: Connect your own database and Kiko can look up an order, a stock level or a delivery date, read-only, with what it may read decided in code. [Learn more](https://heykiko.io/features/database-answers)
- **Requests that need approval**: Refunds, complaints and custom quotes become cases your team approves, with the customer kept up to date. [Learn more](https://heykiko.io/features/cases-and-approvals)

## A sample conversation: A stock question in Pidgin, sorted on WhatsApp

A customer asks in Pidgin after seeing a post. Kiko checks the catalogue, answers in the same style, and the customer is passed to the team to arrange delivery.

- **Customer**: Abeg the blue adire gown for your post still dey for size 12? How much?
- **Kiko**: E still dey! Size 12 na ₦38,000. Delivery for Lagos na ₦3,500 and e go reach in 1–2 days. (I want am / Other sizes)
- **Customer**: I want am
- *Handed to your team*
- **Team**: Thank you! I'm Tolu from Adire Lane. Please send your delivery address.

Adire Lane, Lagos is a sample business; the names and prices are made up.

## Languages your customers in Nigeria write in

Nigerian customers write in English, Pidgin or a mix, and many in Yoruba, Hausa or Igbo. Kiko answers each in the way they wrote.

- **Pidgin**: “Abeg, dis gown still dey? How much e be?” gets a friendly answer customers recognise.
- **Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo**: Customers who write in Yoruba, Hausa or Igbo get replies in those languages. Test a few in the playground first.
- **Formal English for professional firms**: Law firms, clinics and schools can set a formal tone and keep every reply in English.

## Where customers in Nigeria reach you

In Nigeria, WhatsApp is the shop counter: customers see a product on Instagram or a status update, then message to ask the price and whether it's available. Telegram is used for groups and channels.

- **WhatsApp from Instagram and status**: Customers tap through to WhatsApp from your posts and ads. Kiko answers each one at once on your business number.
- **Website chat for search**: People who find you on Google can ask on your site and be moved to WhatsApp or booked in.
- **Telegram channels**: Sellers and communities that run on Telegram can answer questions there with the same agent.

## What WhatsApp costs in Nigeria

Meta's rates per delivered message (Nigeria), from its USD rate card effective 1 October 2026. Meta bills them to your own WhatsApp account; HeyKiko adds nothing to them.

| Message | What it's for | Rate |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Marketing | Offers and announcements, to customers who opted in | $0.0516 |
| Utility | Booking reminders, order and delivery updates | $0.0067 |
| Service | Replies inside the 24-hour window, after 1,000 free a month per number | $0.0067 |

For a fashion store in Lagos with 2,000 chats a month and about 4 replies each, 8,000 replies are 7,000 paid after the free 1,000: $46.90. Adding 1,500 reminders and updates ($10.05) and 1,000 offers ($51.60) brings Meta's bill to about $108.55 a month.

Work out your own month in the [cost calculator](/tools/whatsapp-api-cost-calculator). Source: [Meta](https://developers.facebook.com/docs/whatsapp/pricing)

## Questions from businesses in Nigeria

### Can an AI agent reply to customers on WhatsApp in Nigeria?

Yes. Connect your business number through Meta's WhatsApp Business Platform and Kiko answers every message from your catalogue and documents, day and night, and hands the chat to your team for payment and delivery.

### Does it understand Pidgin?

Yes. Kiko replies in Pidgin to customers who write it, in English to those who write English, and in Yoruba, Hausa or Igbo.

### How much does WhatsApp cost in Nigeria?

Meta's Nigeria rates since 1 October 2026 are $0.0516 per marketing message and $0.0067 per utility message, with 1,000 free service replies a month per number. Meta bills these to your own WhatsApp account.

### Can it confirm whether an item is in stock?

Yes, from your catalogue or a connected product database. Kiko never confirms stock that isn't in your data.

### What does HeyKiko cost for a Nigerian business?

Plans start at $29 a month, billed in USD, after a 14-day free trial with no card.

## Related

- [WhatsApp pricing in Nigeria](https://heykiko.io/whatsapp-api-pricing/nigeria)
- [WhatsApp AI chatbot](https://heykiko.io/channels/whatsapp-ai-chatbot)
- [Product answers](https://heykiko.io/features/product-answers)
- [AI for online stores](https://heykiko.io/blog/ai-for-online-stores)
- [Human hand-off](https://heykiko.io/features/human-handoff)
- [WhatsApp API cost calculator](https://heykiko.io/tools/whatsapp-api-cost-calculator)