LAGOS, (CAJ News) – NIGERIA, Africa’s most populous country and biggest economy, must capitalise on innovation opportunities presented by the internet of things (IoT) to enhance service delivery to its burgeoning population.
This is according to experts as many forward-thinking cities around the world, including in Africa, are taking advantage of technology’s transformative power to engage in sustainable urban development.
“Innovation plays a huge role in helping governments accelerate their pace of technology adoption with regards to faster implementations and real time response to citizens’ needs for better services,” commented Pedro Guerreiro, Managing Director: SAP West Africa.
SAP is the market leader in enterprise application software, helping government and companies of all sizes and industries run better.
Guerreiro said Nigerian local government stands to benefit immensely from IoT, especially with the high quality and speed that comes with network connectivity and infrastructure.
The escalation in urbanisation and climate change is also putting pressure on cities’ management and government.
These require speed and agility, to be able to respond in real-time to challenges such as service disruptions.
“The biggest challenge we see is the adoption rate of technology in Africa. The process requires an innovative technology platform with the power to work with multiple data sources across all services while providing real-time insights, enabling cities to make fast, accurate decisions,” added Guerreiro.
IoT is expected to become a $1,46 trillion industry by 2020.
This innovation will have a positive influence across the entire public sector.
According to the United Nations, as much as 66 percent of the global population is expected to live in urban areas by 2050. This entails the public sector facing increasing challenges, mostly centred around leveraging limited resources to deal with an influx of people requiring basic services.
Population growth in countries such as Nigeria, with an estimated population of 184 million, is projected put pressure on local governments to fast-track and streamline service delivery.
According to latest World Bank data, Nigeria’s average inflation will likely remain in the double digits between 2017/2018 placing high expectations on government to accelerate implementation of public and social investment projects and so help promote economic and employment growth.
– CAJ News