COUNTRY FOCUS: NIGERIA
“
WITHOUT ACCESS TO
THE BACKBONE OF
IOT – CLOUD – AND ITS
CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM –
CONNECTIVITY – THE ENTERPRISE
AND COUNTRY LOSES GROUND TO
THOSE THAT DO.
potentially reduce corruption, and improve
government operations efficiency and
service delivery.
At the same time, we also need to take
data security and privacy seriously. In many
countries, data sovereignty laws require
government and businesses to keep their
data in country, and these challenges must
be addressed if we are truly to transform and
position Nigeria as a hotbed of technological
innovation in Africa.
In spite of these challenges, numerous
companies are breaking tradition and
creating disruptive waves. Many are
creating solutions that are born in the
cloud that allow for innovation through
agility, quicker deployment and competitive
pricing; all disrupting the market and
continent in new ways.
Relevant IT investments drive agility
Nigeria has only recently emerged from its
first economic recession in more than two
decades, which has seen many organisations
relook into their IT spending and question
what technology is right for their business
while reducing cost. This has allowed for
improved cloud uptake and plenty of room
for growth, with Nigeria now expected to
surpass South Africa and Kenya in terms of
cloud adoption by 2018, and rank favourably
when compared with countries across the
globe too.
It is a numbers game in the end, and the
recession took the country from the CAPEX-
based environment into the OPEX one. With
cloud, companies are able to use and pay for
only what they require, meaning that should
there be another recession – for whatever
48
INTELLIGENTCIO
Adebayo Sanni, Managing Director,
Oracle Nigeria
reason – they are able to scale back, as
they are now using a subscription-based
model and did not have to make capital
investments into expensive infrastructure.
Adoption is also being driven by technology
providers offering flexible buying models
that transform how customers buy and
consume cloud services, as well as innovative
on-premise cloud solutions that combine
the benefits of cloud computing with data
privacy regulation compliance. Driving the
right conversations will also encourage
governments to deliver on policies that
are in line with the 21st century. Nigeria is
definitely cloud ready, but there are still some
challenges that need to be overcome.
One of the challenges that need to
be addressed as Nigeria continues its
relentless consumption of technology is
customer education: the concerns that
surround cybersecurity, data residency
and connectivity are valid within this
environment, but technology has been
paying attention. The solutions in play
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