Vodacom: Technology Adoption Will Enhance Business Productivity, Efficiency

The Managing Director of Vodacom Business Nigeria, Lanre Kolade has called on Nigerian Business owners to adopt new technologies that will drive productivity and efficiency in business.

According to him, new technologies like Internet of Things (IoT) and Big Data Analytics would continue to transform and disrupt the business world, and would also remain the future determinant for small and enterprise businesses to remain competitive.

Kolade who spoke at the Business Day CEO Forum Nigeria 2017, an annual thought leadership initiative in collaboration with McKinsey and Co, Which held recently in Abuja, 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 the 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, Kolade said.

Citing Vodafone’s Global IoT barometer report 2017, Kolade said the adoption of IoT had 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 potential 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 optimise processes, automate production and monitor the supply chain.

“We can use technology to disrupt education, with broadband penetration, digitization becomes possible and education contents will be more accessible to all in Nigeria,” Kolade said.

Vodacom is using technology to address challenges in, education, healthcare and agriculture in Africa. 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 monitors stock level and distribution of essential medicines in over 250 medicine dispensary facilities in the state.