According to security experts, every single element of humans’ daily activities have security imperatives within it, and COVID-19 has taught that security has gone beyond the usual physical security.
Research shows that the global physical security sector is currently worth over $160bn, but service provision in developing countries remains inadequate due to major gaps in intelligence gathering and responsive emergency services.
The increase in incessant security challenges globally since September 2001 and particularly Nigeria, ranging from Niger Delta crisis to killings associated with herdsmen, kidnapping, cybercrimes, and advance fee fraud, among others has left major stakeholders in the industry no choice than to tap the opportunities in technology to address them.
One of such stakeholders is Folake Edun who is leveraging her experience as Manager in Deloitte UK and Chapel Hill Denham to deliver real-world solutions making a difference and having a positive impact on the way of life of Africans.
Observing a trend in rising trade, tourism, and foreign investment in Africa, she became very passionate about creating sustainable solutions to address the impact of insecurity on businesses on the continent.
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This passion led to Edun co-founding Towntalk, a data intelligence company committed to providing the security industry in emerging markets with the software and tools to support the real-time delivery of core security services.
Founded in 2019, Edun teamed up with Disun Vera-Cruz and Tomiwa Erinosho to start Towntalk with a mission to build Africa’s most robust security intelligence and response infrastructure. Since inception, Towntalk has conducted projects and raised Venture Capital funding to build its software, tools, and application programming interfaces to support the currently wholly traditional security sector.
Starting Towntalk was a personal initiative for Edun, the motivation to have Nigeria’s data represented in a more efficient and accurate way and informed by technical know-how.
She and her team collated and analyzed security incidents in the lead-up to the 2019 Nigerian Presidential elections to deliver a report of the democratic process. During this project, the team realized that most events impacting businesses and individuals in remote communities were not reported online because of limited access to technology.
Towntalk first built an innovative data collection model by growing a community of 45,000 trusted sources, created through strategic collaborations where verified individuals and emergency responders were given access to their Area! mobile App, WhatsApp Chatbot, and USSD code.
The company also developed an Artificial Intelligence tool, Pulse, to curate, verify, analyze and act on real-time risk indicators. The integration of community engagement and technology enables Towntalk to deliver early warning alerts, navigation, and periodic reports to businesses, travelers, and mobile workers at scale.
Towntalk acted on its community’s request for post-incident management and embarked on the task of collating and verifying emergency responders across Nigeria. To date, Towntalk has an accessible database of 15,000 emergency responders across Nigeria categorized by type and location.
In 2022, the company launched Pulse as a Service which powers security companies to upsell services to their clients and provide insights when needed the most. The company believes that this will grow the revenue of security companies overwhelmed by market pressures to lower the cost of their current services.
Edun explained how Towntalk was able to help the community and business owners in Nigeria at the peak of the pandemic. “Towntalk gathered data when security and safety were on people’s minds at the height of COVID-19.”
The company is taking this further by creating a Travel Safety Package that allows travelers in new and unfamiliar locations to receive location-relevant security briefings and real-time support.
Edun has aligned her values of transparency and inclusion with the operations of Towntalk by demonstrating her passion for creating more representation in a male-dominated tech space. To do this, she mentors young women and has modeled her company to be 70 percent women-driven.
Her commitment to changing the narrative for data collection in Africa is paving the way for a more sustainable future for young Africans, but most importantly young African women.
