EDITOR ’ S QUESTION
JIM HOLLAND , REGIONAL DIRECTOR – AFRICA ,
LENOVO INFRASTRUCTURE SOLUTIONS GROUP
While Africa may be a developing continent , it has shown great promise and opportunity in the past decade . This , of course , can be seen in the continent ’ s eagerness to transcend into the Fourth Industrial Revolution .
IoT , also known as the Internet of Things , has grown in both supply and demand – especially with COVID-19 now accelerating the continent ’ s deployment . This can be seen in the continent ’ s growing demand for smarter financial systems and more stable telecommunication operations .
Positioning an IoT solution can be overwhelming . It ’ s important to have an overall IoT strategy within your company , however it must make sense . If an IoT solution does not have any commercial benefits to an organisation , then it is very difficult to justify to the board members . CIOs need to have an overall vision and strategy of what they would like to implement over time , however , they need to find a small project which will have an immediate impact to the business , making sure that the investment they make integrates into the overall vision . investment in FinTech has grown tremendously over the past decade . Whilst FinTech has been vastly available in countries all over Africa throughout the years , its popularity peaked has peaked over the last two years . This , of course , was due to the global pandemic forcing citizens to adopt financial habits that can be executed on a remote basis as well as the increased importance on fund remittances across the continent .
That said , when deploying IoT technologies there are several factors which have to be taken into consideration . These include finding and retaining the right skills . There has been a massive increase in new technologies like AI , Machine Learning , data science etc , so having the right talent and staying current is extremely important . Making sure that your IoT environment is secure from the far Edge to the core to the cloud and being able to address security threats proactively is critical . In addition , being able to maintain and update IoT strategies frequently and building an eco-system of trusted partners who have the experience in deploying IoT technologies across at least one or more verticals is important .
For example , an industry vertical that has grown in popularity over the past few years is that of financial technology ( FinTech ) sector . Companies of this nature utilise the Internet , algorithms , and software technologies to offer financial services to entrepreneurs , everyday consumers both banked and unbanked and small and medium enterprises ( SMEs ). In short , FinTech organisations provide services that would usually be typically available within a traditional banking branch . Therefore , services such as loans , payments , investments and wealth management are now available through this industry vertical through the assistance of IoT . As businesses across the continent continue to modernise their financial security and business administration – an
CIOs need to have an overall vision and strategy of what they would like to implement over time , however , they need to find a small project which will have an immediate impact to the business , making sure that the investment they make integrates into the overall vision .
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