Elijah Daniel, the Country Sales Director, Process Automation, Sub-Saharan Africa, Schneider Electric, has stated that industrial organisations that prioritise digital twins technology in their operations are likely to realise sustainable returns from their investments.
Digital Twin is a virtual representation of a physical object or system that uses real-time data to accurately reflect its real-world counterpart’s behaviour, performance and conditions.
Daniel noted that digital twins technology is designed to solve operational problems, adding that its adoption across manufacturing, energy, infrastructure, and process industries in Nigeria would improve asset reliability and optimise production.
Daniel, in a statement titled: ‘Digital Twins Deliver Value Only When Built Around Business Outcomes’, said that while digital twins have emerged as one of the industry’s most talked about technologies, many projects fail to deliver expected returns because organisations prioritise technology deployment over clearly defined business outcomes.
Quoting a report by MarketsandMarkets, he said the global digital twin market is projected to grow from approximately US$21.14 billion in 2025 to more than US$149.81 billion by 2030, driven by increased adoption across manufacturing, energy, infrastructure, and process industries.
He said: “At their core, digital twins seek to address one of engineering’s longest standing challenges: fragmented data across disciplines”.
He noted that mechanical, electrical, instrumentation and process engineering teams often work in separate environments, producing inconsistent datasets, duplicated work and limited visibility that can lead to costly project delays.
“By creating a shared engineering data environment, organisations can generate deliverables from a common source of truth, improving collaboration throughout the asset lifecycle,” he added.
Daniel said modern digital engineering platforms combine design information with operational data from control systems, sensors, maintenance records and performance monitoring tools, enabling activities that span engineering design and project execution to operations, asset performance management and process optimisation within a connected ecosystem.
He said the approach is increasingly relevant for Africa, where governments and private operators are investing in energy infrastructure, manufacturing and industrial modernisation.
“As these projects become increasingly complex, integrated engineering platforms offer significant opportunities to improve project delivery, reduce rework, and enhance asset reliability,” he said.
But Daniel warned that successful implementation goes beyond software capabilities.
According to him, “Advanced digital twin architectures frequently rely on integrations with enterprise systems, cloud platforms, operational historians, weather data, ERP applications, and machine learning models. While these capabilities can unlock predictive maintenance, renewable energy forecasting, and operational optimisation, they also require mature data governance, reliable historical data, and organisational readiness.
He further noted that, “Without these foundational capabilities, sophisticated digital twin deployments risk becoming technology demonstrations rather than operational assets.”
“Organisations that establish trusted, connected data environments are better positioned to deploy advanced analytics, automation, and predictive maintenance solutions that deliver measurable business value,” he added.
