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By Nwakaego Alajemba
Will internet-of-things (IoT) take firmer grip in Nigeria and will post-pandemic era see governments and businesses get more driven by IoT? Vice Chairman of the Information Technology Association of Nigeria (ITAN) and Executive Chairman, IoT Africa Networks Ltd, Lare Ayoola, is convinced market dynamics and regulatory disposition will see an expansive market for IoT.
In 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic made businesses and governments to become more reliant on technology; and IoT applications took the front seat.
In 2021, according to one report by Silicon Republic, quoting Forrester’s Glenn O’Donnell: “demand for new internet-of-things (IoT) applications, technologies and solutions will be driven by connected healthcare, smart offices, remote asset monitoring and location services, all powered by a growing diversity of networking technologies.”
Forbes sees more. 2020 has helped to further fuel the boundless potential of IoT and seen digital transformation accelerated rapidly across several jurisdictions.
All of these majorly helped by increased connectivity, faster WiFi and improvements in AI and machine learning, Forbes is certain that IoT in 2021 will finally “deepen its roots in “our lives and industries” to finally become the cornerstone of industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).
Why not! IoT is already everywhere. There will be 35 billion smart devices online by 2021, and that number will rise to 75 billion by 2025. Smart home devices have already redefined both living and working spaces in a way that increases dependency whether in our personal or work lives.
Forbes also predicts an expansive use of IoT in the growing global data economy. IoT will improve data analytics; go beyond merely monitoring behavior and spitting out data. IoT will help drive super speed in processing data and helping organisations make recommendations, take strategic decisions in realtime. Thanks to the deepening synergy between IoT and AI with ML technologies helping to quickly process the vast amounts of data received.
For developing economies including that of Nigeria where there is a steady shift to digitsation and the nascent data industry is on the rise, operators like Ayoola plowing the IoT field sees vast untapped opportunities. He is convinced that IoT will redefine how businesses thrive and how governments function in Nigeria.
“The addressable market over the next five to seven years is probably about 400 million devices so that’s a pretty big market. If 400 million devices were connected to the internet, the ecosystems in Nigeria will operate in a very different way. They will be far more efficient, the productivity will be higher, accountability will certainly be much better, visibility will be perfect, and ease of management will go up dramatically,” said Ayoola, who interacted with IT Edge News at the just ended GITEX Technology Week, in Dubai, UAE.
He adds: “If you look at the oil industry 25% can easily be shaved off or sliced off the cost of production of oil in terms of better project management, you’re looking at a savings of at least 8-10%. Take Shell Petroleum, for example, in the first year of their digitization programme, which involved introducing IoT to collect data for the more efficient running of their business, they gained five billion dollars. So, we are talking about the technology that changes the fortune of companies dramatically once they it utilize properly.”
His company, IoT Africa Networks, exhibited inside the Nigerian Country Pavilion at GITEX. Ayoola’s company is the exclusive Sigfox operator in Nigeria – giving them a unique edge as distributors of many IoT connected devices in the country of over 200 million people and Africa’s largest economy.
