The importance of data and data
analytics as projected by global economies, are beginning to unfold in
Africa, writes Emma Okonji
In 2017, The Economist had declared that
the world’s most valuable resource was no longer oil but data. Since
that declaration in 2017, global economies are finding new ways to make
the best use of
data generation and data analytics in making informed
decisions that will propel economies and businesses, in line with
emerging technologies that are evolving.
Africans are beginning to see the
importance of data generation and data analytics, even though research
has shown that so much of untapped data sit on the African continent
that needs to be harnessed for the proper use for various decision
making. Data protection and privacy regulation in most, or even all,
African countries are often less mature – particularly when compared to
the European Union (EU’s) General Data Protection (GDPR) regime. As
such, economies on the continent present both risks and opportunities
when it comes to data.
At the recent Africa Technology Summit
in Kigali, Rwanda, tagged” ‘Africa Tech Summit Kigali, Rwanda, focus was
on data protection and privacy regulations, as well as digital
transformation in Africa.
At that summit, one of the delegates stated that data was, in fact, Africa’s “new blood” rather than the “new oil.”
The summit recognised data as the lifeblood for Africa’s pursuit for competitive advantage, as panel discussions were centred around how best to generate data, analyse data, use data, and protect data, having declared that data is Africa’s ‘new blood’ as against the old narrative that data is the ‘new oil’ for Africans.
In one of the panel sessions at the summit, the Director, Business Development in charge of Middle East and Africa at Microsoft, Mark Ihimoyan, discussed how Microsoft had in 2019, opened its first data centres on the continent through new cloud regions in Cape Town and Johannesburg. According to him, “Microsoft’s goal is to accelerate global investment in Africa and create greater economic opportunities for businesses based in Africa.”
Also, the Chief Communications and Public Affairs Officer for GE Africa, Patricia Obozuwa, shared insights from the GE Lagos Garage, a hub for advanced manufacturing skills development focused on building the next generation of Nigerian entrepreneurs. Interventions like this are playing a critical role in building the capacity of human capital on the continent.
The summit recognised data as the lifeblood for Africa’s pursuit for competitive advantage, as panel discussions were centred around how best to generate data, analyse data, use data, and protect data, having declared that data is Africa’s ‘new blood’ as against the old narrative that data is the ‘new oil’ for Africans.
In one of the panel sessions at the summit, the Director, Business Development in charge of Middle East and Africa at Microsoft, Mark Ihimoyan, discussed how Microsoft had in 2019, opened its first data centres on the continent through new cloud regions in Cape Town and Johannesburg. According to him, “Microsoft’s goal is to accelerate global investment in Africa and create greater economic opportunities for businesses based in Africa.”
Also, the Chief Communications and Public Affairs Officer for GE Africa, Patricia Obozuwa, shared insights from the GE Lagos Garage, a hub for advanced manufacturing skills development focused on building the next generation of Nigerian entrepreneurs. Interventions like this are playing a critical role in building the capacity of human capital on the continent.
The CEO and Founder at ARED, a renewable
energy startup, Henri Nyakarundi, spoke about some of the challenges
that entrepreneurs and investors face in Africa. These include the
process of accessing capital. ARED has sought funding to help it scale
out of Rwanda into Ethiopia, Senegal and the Ivory coast this year with
it planning to do so through the flexibility and agility offered by a
licensing model. Fintech players like OPay and Flutterwave, who attended
the summit from Nigeria, reflected on open banking regulations coming
to Africa.
Data as new blood
According to a senior marketing and business development professional and member of the board at the African Foundation for Development, Boko Inyundo, the wider industry conversation around Africa and tech was summed up by a delegate’s observation that data is Africa’s “new blood,” particularly in relation to inherent risks around big data.
According to a senior marketing and business development professional and member of the board at the African Foundation for Development, Boko Inyundo, the wider industry conversation around Africa and tech was summed up by a delegate’s observation that data is Africa’s “new blood,” particularly in relation to inherent risks around big data.
The delegates noted that organisations
leveraging large consumer data sets could be seen by those same
consumers as effectively taking their blood, only to sell it right back
to them through tools designed to exploit their data at scale.
Africa’s “new blood” does run the risk of being ‘contaminated.’
Africa’s “new blood” does run the risk of being ‘contaminated.’
Global cybersecurity firm Dark Trace
presented a keynote with case studies showing how the
company’s‘Enterprise Immune System’ and ‘Antigena’ technologies have
detected and responded to previously unidentified threats against
enterprise clients operating in Africa.
Cyber risk repeatedly came up as a critical issue. Partner at IKM Advocates from the office of DLA Piper Africa in Kenya, William Maema, noted that many African countries have no specific cyber legislation. For the few jurisdictions where cyber laws exist, there is a general lack of awareness about the importance of investing in cyber resilience through preventive measures, incident response and post-incident remediation.
Cyber risk repeatedly came up as a critical issue. Partner at IKM Advocates from the office of DLA Piper Africa in Kenya, William Maema, noted that many African countries have no specific cyber legislation. For the few jurisdictions where cyber laws exist, there is a general lack of awareness about the importance of investing in cyber resilience through preventive measures, incident response and post-incident remediation.
The result, according to the summit, “is
a conducive environment for cybercrime in Africa.” The summit, however,
advised that corporates, governments and investors must, as a matter of
urgency, should design and implement governance structures to protect
them and their directors; deploy tools to assess risk and comply with
evolving regulatory requirements; refine sound corporate policies and
strategies to create and maintain a culture of security; and implement
responsible supply-chain and vendor risk-management techniques and
contract support.
The African market, no doubt, is
witnessing a maturation of data analytics into an independent, intuitive
technology. It is becoming integral to the way people work, moving away
from the predominant use by only a select few, towards a tool that is
utilised across the entire organisation.
According to Managing Director of Softworx, Jane Thomson, in the future, a greater embedding of analytics is expected, integrating its value into the rest of the enterprise applications, instead of running it as a separate function.
According to Managing Director of Softworx, Jane Thomson, in the future, a greater embedding of analytics is expected, integrating its value into the rest of the enterprise applications, instead of running it as a separate function.
“This embedding will be fostered with
increased movement to the cloud, as organisations that have not yet
invested in data analytics infrastructure can now do so without
incurring the traditional start-up costs. Over the last five years, data
analytics processes have greatly evolved. The processes themselves have
gone from clunky and non-intuitive tools, driven only by the IT
department, to a truly modern era of self-service. This self-service
approach to data analytics is starting to bear fruit. It does, however,
come with some challenges,” Thomson said.
“For data analytics, truly to be part of
the work, it must be made available to the entire business. To this
end, tools are becoming available to greater parts of the enterprise.
This results in more discussion about the data itself, not only the
analytical tools, both around the boardroom, and the water-cooler. Data
is the source, it is the element that is most important,” Thomson added.
Reports on data analytics
Historically, enterprises in the region have relied on reporting tools as the basis for taking business decisions. These tools assess historical data and produce summaries in standard views and standard formats. The next phase was to move reporting summaries into dashboards using graphical coloured tools to highlight alerts, trends, summaries for business. Another historical trend, a decade ago, was for enterprises in all industries, to roll in a financial accounting package as a one-stop solution for all business requirements.
With the arrival of cloud technologies and the increasingly larger scale of data aggregations, the requirements of end-users are changing. Going through standard reports and legacy tools is no longer an option for regional enterprise end-users, according to the views of the Regional Vice President Sales, Africa and Middle East at Epicor, Mr. Monzer Tohme.
Historically, enterprises in the region have relied on reporting tools as the basis for taking business decisions. These tools assess historical data and produce summaries in standard views and standard formats. The next phase was to move reporting summaries into dashboards using graphical coloured tools to highlight alerts, trends, summaries for business. Another historical trend, a decade ago, was for enterprises in all industries, to roll in a financial accounting package as a one-stop solution for all business requirements.
With the arrival of cloud technologies and the increasingly larger scale of data aggregations, the requirements of end-users are changing. Going through standard reports and legacy tools is no longer an option for regional enterprise end-users, according to the views of the Regional Vice President Sales, Africa and Middle East at Epicor, Mr. Monzer Tohme.
According to him, endusers want dashboards that give them an instant view of their company position from all different angles.
From collection to sales, to product performance, per region, per sales person. They need that sort of analysis on the spot, and at any time. This is where mobility now plays a big part in making data analytics available. But in all of these, there is need for data safety and protection.
From collection to sales, to product performance, per region, per sales person. They need that sort of analysis on the spot, and at any time. This is where mobility now plays a big part in making data analytics available. But in all of these, there is need for data safety and protection.
Nigeria’s data protection and regulation
In order to be at par with developed
economies of the world, coupled with the need to protect data of
Nigerian citizens, the National Information Technology Development
Agency (NITDA), had in January last year, issued the Nigeria Data
Protection Regulation (NDPR), which seeks to safeguard the rights of
natural persons in Nigeria with respect to the processing of their
personal data.
NITDA subsequently issued the NDPR Draft Implementation Framework in
July 2019, with the objectives to safeguard the rights of natural
persons to data privacy; foster safe conduct for transactions involving
the exchange of personal data; prevent manipulation of personal data;
and to ensure that Nigerian businesses remain competitive in
international trade through the safe-guards afforded by a just and
equitable legal regulatory framework on data protection and which is in
tune with best practice.
The regulation defines “Personal data”
to mean any information relating to an identified or identifiable
natural person, which could include one or more factors specific to the
physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social
identity of that natural person. This according to NITDA, would include a
name, an identification number, address, a photograph, an email
address, bank details, posts on social networking websites, medical
information, IP address, among others.
NITDA insisted that the NDPR would apply
to natural persons residing in Nigeria or residing outside Nigeria but
of Nigerian descent.
The NDPR comes with fines on breaches, which include up to two per cent of annual gross revenue or N10 million for data controller with over 10,000 subjects; up to one per cent of annual gross revenue or N2 million with data controller with less than 10,000 subjects.
The NDPR comes with fines on breaches, which include up to two per cent of annual gross revenue or N10 million for data controller with over 10,000 subjects; up to one per cent of annual gross revenue or N2 million with data controller with less than 10,000 subjects.
According to NITDA’s framework, the NDPR
would apply whenever media organisations collect, use or keep any
information about a living person , even if it’s not ‘private’. The NDPR
specifically tasks the media practitioners to uphold accountability and
foster the objectives of the NDPR.
Although the NITDA Data Protection
Regulation (NDPR), which is modeled after the European Union Data
Protection Law, seeks to protect data collection, processing and
administration in order to foster safe conduct for transactions
involving the exchange of personal data, among other objectives, some
Nigerians have criticized the NITDA’s NDPR, insisting that what Nigeria
needs is data protection law and not data protection regulation
document.
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