The Nigerian technology ecosystem is growing. The number of technology start-ups as well as other types of small business enterprises is also on the increase.
One outcome of this positive trend is periodic events where trends and latest developments are discussed in a bid to help deepen the culture of innovation.
Thankfully, I was an integral part of the recently concluded Nigeria International Technology Exhibition & Conference, tagged NITEC 2017, where discussions focused on the Future of Big Data, Analytics and Applications.
One thing that made me really excited is the number of people that turned up despite the rains. This is a pointer to the fact that the digital culture is gradually taking roots.
Big data is not limited to any particular industry. The point is that, in as much as there is unrestricted access to data collection, analysis, and interpretation, it will always have a significant impact on every kind of business in different dimensions.
According to research from the McKinsey Global Institute and McKinsey & Company’s Business Technology Office, the sheer volume of data generated, stored, and mined for insights has become economically relevant to businesses, government, and consumers.
With about 2.5 billion gigabytes of data generated each day, according to IBM, businesses should focus on how to safely and effectively store and analyse data, so as to discern patterns and start making predictive and insightful decisions.
These decisions will play essential roles as fundamentals that will fuel favourable competition, growth, improving output and creating significant value for the general economy by growing the quality of products and services.
“Contrary to the general belief that we do not have data in Nigeria, we do in fact have large quantum of data scattered all over silos. For instance, we have BVN hosted with the CBN and Nigerian banks, drivers’ licenses with the FRSC and we also have data with the INEC. What we need to do is to coordinate these data under one umbrella and make it more inclusive,” said John Obaro, the Managing Director of SystemSpecs in his keynote address at the NITEC 2017 event, as presented on his behalf by David Okeme, the Chief Marketing Officer of SystemsSpecs.
Coordinating big data under one umbrella will enable the maximising of the benefits of generating and accessing the necessary data required for businesses to thrive and add value to the Nigerian economy which is currently recovering from recession.
Already, proactive and forward-thinking entrepreneurs across different spheres of the economy are aggressively pushing hard to rebuild their organisations based on outcome from various forms of data analysis.
They understand that if they can capture the data of buyers, age range, and preferences, for — Finish Reading on the Punch
