How Nigeria can benefit from data innovation – IBM

As Nigeria intensifies efforts to reform business environment, IBM says investing in data and advanced technologies like cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI) and internet of things (IoT) is critical to development.

Dipo Faulkner, Country General Manager, IBM, made this known in a statement released to BusinessDay.

Nigeria recently moved up 24 steps to 145^th position on the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Report for 2018. According to the World Bank, Nigeria alongside El Salvador, India, Malawi, Brunei Darussalam, Kosovo, Uzbekistan, Thailand, Zambia and Djibouti were the top 10 most improved countries worldwide following numerous reforms aimed at improving business environments.

Stakeholders said the new position reflected the government’s ongoing efforts to reform its business environment revamp and harmonise data management capabilities with regards to public administration of the country’s human and material resources.

“Data is increasingly becoming the world’s new natural resource and this ‘big data’ phenomenon has begun to change everything. Right now, we have over one trillion connected objects and devices on the planet generating data. Data is driving the concepts and strategies behind the Internet of Things (IoT) which is bound to affect all industries. It is important for companies and government institutions in Nigeria to know that the world is now moving into a new era of the cloud and cognitive computing environment, driven by data, Faulkner said.

Faulkner also noted that Nigeria’s latest World Bank ranking is reflective of progress. However, more needs to be done in leveraging data and new technologies to advance the economy.

For him, having exited recession, the country now has opportunity for increased private and public-sector investments in technology.

“As a nation, we must act speedily to revamp and replace manual, paper-based administrative systems and processes with computerised systems. This is a clarion call for a collaborative mindset and partnership between our public and private sector firms.

“We must not only harmonise our efforts to drive up efficiency levels, we must also ensure that technology is at the core of our efforts to innovate,” he said.