Businesses can be more productive with new technologies —Vodacom boss

From left, Dr Ebun Sonaiya, Director, Nigeria South Africa Chamber of Commerce; Chief Mrs Opral Benson, Chief Executive Officer of Chic Afrique, Mr Lanre Kolade, Managing Director, Vodacom Business Nigeria and Mr Osayaba Giwa-Osagie, Director of Nigeria South Africa Chamber of Commerce during the Nigerian-South African Chamber of Commerce breakfast meeting, held in Lagos, recently.

As Technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT) and Big Data Analytics continue to transform and disrupt the business world, the Managing Director of Vodacom Business Nigeria, Mr Lanre Kolade, has once again called on Nigerian businesses to adopt new technologies to drive productivity and efficiency to remain competitive.

Speaking at the recently held Business Day CEO Forum Nigeria 2017, an annual thought leadership initiative in collaboration with McKinsey & Co, Kolade said: “Technology such as IoT enables growth across business sectors. Today, many organisations are using this technology to cut costs, reduce risk, increase revenue and efficiency.

“Businesses in Africa are gradually adopting IoT, with Nigeria being one of the leading IoT markets in Africa. This adoption is driven by the increasing availability of affordable smart devices, coupled with the need for enterprises to deliver shareholder value. According to the Vodafone’s Global IoT barometer report 2017, the adoption of IoT has grown significantly from 12 per cent in 2013 to 29 per cent in 2017 and 49 per cent of these adopters use IoT in conjunction with analytics to improve business decision-making.

“In Africa, disruptive technologies such as IoT hold significant potentials and the opportunities are found in different sectors. From Finance and Insurance to Manufacturing and Agriculture, including the Education sector, organisation of all sizes are using IoT to optimize processes, automate production and monitor the supply chain. Speaking further at the event, Lanre Kolade said “We can use technology to disrupt education, with broadband penetration, digitization becomes possible and education contents will be more accessible to all in Nigeria.”

Vodacom, according to him, is using technology to address challenges in education, healthcare and agriculture in Africa.

He said Vodacom recently deployed IoT solution for education and healthcare in Kaduna state using a mobile school management solution, which provides real-time visibility of all administrative activities at over 4000 schools. The healthcare solution, he said, monitors stock level and distribution of essential medicines in over 250 medicine dispensary facilities in the state.

Our Reporter