CBN Charges Firms to Embrace Big Data for Survival
A Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in-charge of Operations Directorate, Mr. Ade Shonubi, has advised business organisations in the country to leverage the power of big data and internet of things (IoT), to survive competitions in the present and future business environment which are driven by digital technology.
Shonubi gave the advice in Lagos, recently, while delivering a keynote address at the maiden Thought Leadership Colloquium organised by Greenwich Registrars & Data Solutions Limited, with the theme: “Big Data in Nigeria: A Business Case in an Era of Digitalisation and Data Protection.”
The deputy governor who was represented at the occasion by a director at the Information Technology department of the CBN, Hajiya Rakiya Shuaibu Mohammed, said organisations who fail to meet up with the fast pace of change using the power of big data would go out of business.
He explained: “So to survive in this age, organisations need to have an agile data architecture that will enable them harness the power of big data and be able to play in their competitive ecosystem.
“So what I think we should do as an organisation is to have a very clear vision and a very clear strategy. When we have to look at data, we have to make a conscious decision to look at data as an asset, and to do that, we have to look at the entire organisation.
“So if for example, let’s say in the central bank or as banks, we have our payment infrastructure and we are taking it as our critical information asset, we do everything we can to make sure we protect it, to make sure we make it better, to make sure we use it to drive revenue or even bring down cost.
“We have to think about data in that light as well even we want to harness the power.
The second thing is that we need to have tangible used cases.
“So when you understand the business drivers for harnessing the power of data in your organisation, you need to also ask yourself: what is it you want to use this data for?
“Is it that you want to increase revenue? Or is it that
you want to use it to bring down cost? Or is it that you want to use it to improve the capability of your people so that they are more productive? Or is it that you want to increase customer loyalty?”
Also, in his presentation, the guest speaker and digital transformation strategist from Denmark, Mr. Steffen Damborg, said senior business leaders and chief executive officers must create strong digital culture in their organisations, stressing that a digital culture empowers people to deliver results faster.
Earlier in her welcoming speech, the acting Managing Director of Greenwich Registrars &Data Solutions, Obiageli Chiki-Ijegbulam, who made reference to an IBM study, said under-utilising data was a costly mistake for many organisations.
According to Chiki-Ijegbulam, “an IBM study in 2017 revealed that inferior data cost the US almost 20 per cent of the nation’s GDP –a pretty convincing case for improving and expanding data opportunity.