General News
Big Data is Transformative -Otiti
Taiwo Otiti, country general manager, IBM West Africa is an accomplished technology and financial services professional with vast change management and business transformation experience.
He is the current chair of the Nigeria Institute of Bankers Information Technology Technical Committee, and a member of several Government, Banking and Technology industry associations and think tanks.
Otiti told peter ugwu in this interview how Government and corporate organizations can leverage on Big Data era and IBM’s contributions towards Nigeria and Africa’s economic development.
Big Data Concepts and Application
Big Data is basically structured and unstructured data. The concept refers to ability to collect and analyze the vast amounts of data we are now generating allover the world. We generate about 2.5 quintillion bytes of data from a variety of sources daily – from climate information, to posts on social media sites, and purchase transaction records to healthcare medical images.
It would be interesting to know Africa’s share of this global data mix, especially mobile communications adoption on the continent continues to grow.
Examples of structured data are financial records, medical records, identity records and everything that has been configured into a format that we can easily understand, while unstructured data is usually information which exists in some sort of random format, for example, information harnessed from business and social media platforms; things like text messages, mobile chats, tweets, voice, sound or music files, videos and pictures which people share and circulate online.
We also now have scenarios where data is collected through cell phone recording, industrial and domestic devices and gadgets with cameras, sensors and other types of equipment like climate control instrumentation, pipeline monitoring instrumentation, and so many other data harnessing tools and technologies.
So, we are not just referring to the data sets that we have programmed to deal with; there are also data sets that come in without any formal structure.
The application of analytics enables us to make use of these data, as we extract fresh insights from the analyzed data. The Big Data concept is applicable in any sector – agriculture, aviation, banking, retail, healthcare, media, marketing, in fact, there is no industry that the Big Data concept does not have a potential impact on.
The Impact of Big Data on Organizations
Big Data is no longer confined to the realm of technology. Big Data will provide organizations with new insights and previously unrealized know-how which will aid quality decision making across all strata of an organization.
The adoption and impact of Big Data concepts in Africa should be of particular interest to Nigerian businesses as we now have a borderless business environment where technology has ensured that customers anywhere can access a company at the click of a mouse.
So with Big Data , Africa-based organizations are poised for an exciting future. With Big Data and analytics, we will begin to see the intersection of local and global information, and this should further add to the continent’s transformation story as new forms of knowledge, new forms of business and government services and innovation which is indigenous to Africa begin to evolve out of Africa.
It is important that Nigerian companies begin to apply Big Data principles. They need to be proactive in managing the evolution of their relationships with their customers and stakeholders.
They need to begin to leverage their information assets to gain a comprehensive understanding of markets, customers, products, distribution channels, regulations, competitors, employees and more.
In addition to providing solutions to companies’ long-standing business challenges, Big Data solutions offer the power to transform processes, organizations and entire industries.
Sectors in Nigeria with more Interest in Big Data
I would say that currently the telecommunications and financial services institutions, especially Nigerian banks have shown relatively deeper interest in Big Data usage than other sectors.
These two sectors are more interested in harnessing their business and social networks. The local retail sector is just beginning to wake up to the Big Data idea. These three sectors would benefit tremendously from the insights provided by Big Data and Analytics technology.
In the financial sector, I know for a fact that Big Data and analytics technology will increasingly be a powerful asset for building much needed trust and transparency between the banks, their customers and the regulatory authorities.
This Big Data management will become more crucial as customers’ access banking products and services online and through hand held devices like tablets and mobile phones.
Governments and state-owned institutions at various levels are also showing interest in addressing their information archiving and Big Data management issues.
Making Meaning out of Unstructured Data
Data is a constantly fermenting, constantly growing resource. Remember that any insights, information diagnostics or prognosis that can be garnered from this constantly expanding data resource is always going to be dependent on how the resource itself is mined.
Data analytics tools and technology therefore allows companies to galvanize value from the coupling of structured and unstructured data.
Take the very common Point-of-Sale transaction, for instance. A retailer can decide to plug in structured data like a shoppers’ debit or credit card number with unstructured or semi-structured information like variable transaction volumes and shopping details for more customer insights.
Retails shops can use insights from this merged information constructs to offer personalized services to shoppers, for example.
The Nigerian insurance sector would also do well to adopt Big Data analytics solutions. This is one sub-sector of the financial services sector that really needs to expand and perhaps re-design product portfolios in order to attract more customers, as many Nigerians are yet to inculcate the concept of insurance into their lives.
I am sure that analyses of the historical and current data resident in various insurance firms would certainly help companies foment a stronger bond with their policy holders, helping them grow their market share, and by extension the industry. The insurance industry globally has already adopted Big Data principles.
A recent IBM study involving global executives in the insurance industry found that 74 percent of insurance companies surveyed report that the use of information (including Big Data) and analytics is creating a competitive advantage for their organizations, compared to 35 percent of insurance companies that reported a Big Data advantage when the same study was conducted in 2010.
Analysts have referred to the advent of Big Data and analytics as the era of constructive disruption to the way we currently conduct business.
Emerging Trends in Big Data
Several trends are helping to advance Big Data. One major issue about Big Data is that it will change the way private and public sector institutions operate and engage with their stakeholders.
Big Data and analytics will usher in deeper levels of market segmentation or customization. Analytics technology is getting better everyday and this is one area IBM is providing leadership for the rest of the global tech industry.
You must also remember that we are now in the era of mass digitization, where many things can be monitored or tracked in real time.
Most courier companies now give customers a unique number they can use to track their parcels in transit, for instance.
Use of the social media is now more widespread. This trend has really shattered distance and made the global community to seem local; people around the world are communicating and interacting via social networks in ways that were unimaginable only a few years ago.
Data transmission and data storage technology has also advanced, helping to edge the Big Data industry forward. Organizations are now able to store, access, and analyze huge new streams of data. It wasn’t always like this.
These trends are converging to usher in a new era of Big Data globally and even in Nigeria where we tend to be quick adopters of global tech trends.
Measuring Return-on-Investment (RoI) Using Big Data & Analytics Technology
It is certainly possible to measure ROI using Big Data tools. By collecting, filtering, and analyzing data, organizations can actually identify and solve many of the inefficiencies which plague their day-to-day operations – including externalities like fraud and corruption which can threaten the organizations’ very reason to excite.
For instance, in a manufacturing company where products are not doing well, with Big Data insights you can make informed decisions about the future of that product. It affords you the ability to manufacture using just in time manufacturing techniques.
Nigerian companies need to begin to become more efficient in the use of their assets and resources. With the application of analytics to data we can begin to predict or pre-empt market trends, customer behaviour and emerging patterns in the entire supply chain.
Is IBM Helping to Develop Big Data Analytics Skills In Africa?
Yes, IBM is engaged in several human capital development projects on the continent. We have IBM ‘Big Data bootcamps’ and bigdatauniversity.com.
These are online platforms where Africans currently access Big Data analytics case studies and global best practice.
Earlier in the year, our Chairman Ginni Rometty announced the decision to give out free IBM software to universities across Africa.
This will allow students and academics to learn not just about Big Data and analytics concepts but also other computing technology areas like cloud, mobile, software security and programming skills.
This particularly project also involves helping to upgrade the curriculum for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics courses at tertiary institutions allover the continent.
The IBM Research Africa lab in Nairobi, Kenya is also helping to grow the continent’s army of Big Data and analytics experts. You know, IBM spends over $6 billion annually on technology research and development, and the lab is IBM’s 12th lab globally and represents a massive commitment to the future of technology innovation in Africa. Scientists and researchers at the lab will be collaborating with other IBM lab around the world, designing innovative solutions to tackle some of Africa’s most pressing challenges: issues like energy and power management, transportation, financial and economic inclusion, agricultural productivity, healthcare, water and sanitation.
Professionals and academics in the Nigerian IT industry can also improve specific computing skills, including Big Data and analytics skills at the new IBM Nigeria Innovation Centre in Lagos. This new facility is one of over 41 IBM innovation centers in 33 countries around the world.
Globally, I think so far IBM has invested about $24 billion in its Big Data and Analytics capabilities, We have probably one of the world’s deepest portfolio of analytics R&D, solutions and software: and more than 40,000 Big Data and Analytics client engagements.
The World Bank on Tuesday disclosed plans to support Nigeria with $800 million to boost the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) initiative of the present administration.
Mr. Ousmane Diagana, Vice President of World Bank in Western and Central Africa, stated this in Abuja, during a meeting with Professor Nentawe Yilwatda, minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction; Hon. Yusuf Tanko Sununu, minister of State for Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction; and Dr. Yakubu Kofamarta, permanent secretary.
While giving update on the initiative, Mr. Diagana said the delegation is Nigeria’s assess to the level of progress and challenges of social investment programme in the Ministry and pledged to support the initiative to meet the desired objective of reducing poverty in Nigeria.
While stressing the Bank’s support for Nigeria as a developing country to provide quality services by continuing to create jobs among others for the Citizens, he disclosed that World Bank has “a very large programme here in Nigeria worth more than $17 billion.”
Yilwatda, minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction, described the World Bank as a dependable partner and maintained that the Ministry would continue to collaborate with relevant agencies including the United Nations with a view to ensure that more funds are provided to reduce poverty in the country with a target of 15 million households.
While applauding the clear leadership being provided by President Bola Tinubu for the success of the social investment programmes in the country, the Minister explained that “everybody who is going to benefit from this conditional cash transfer will be given a digital identity, so you have digital trust.
“And that is not just identity, but it’s a social inclusion and financial inclusion to hundreds and thousands of Nigerians who before now were not socially inclusive. They were not also financially included in Nigeria.
“You know, having over 70 million of Nigerians who before now have no account numbers, have no identity, you cannot trace their homes; you can’t trace their addresses.
“And today, while you’re taking all their homes, we also give digital identity, and we’re paying them conditional cash transfer.
“This the largest financial inclusion ever the history of Nigeria, and this is a bold step by Mr. President to ensure that the effect of the reforms that the government is doing is also being cushioned by this social investment that we’re having in the country.
Professor Yilwatda disclosed that the administration is “targeting 15 million households. Nigeria has roughly about we have roughly about 41 to 42 million households, the total number of household that we have in the country. So we are targeting 15 million households out of these 42 million households.
“So, if you look at the numbers, it means we are doing roughly about the neighborhood. Over 30% of the households that will benefit from this conditional cash transfer.
“Multiply that number by five, we’re taking off roughly about 60 million people will benefit from this conditional cash transfer, that’s targeting about 60 million people.
“15 million households, targeting about 60 million individuals within the households.
“Now if you look at these numbers, because the numbers are saying that roughly about 42% of Nigerians are living in poverty, those numbers simply shows that roughly about 90 million people, which means this cash transfer alone is targeting almost over 70% but people who are living under poverty in Nigeria by this conditional cash transfer, which is the largest ever in the history.”
According to him, each of the CCT beneficiaries is to receive the sum of N75,000.
“Already we’ve paid almost 6 million people, almost 6 million households, targeting about 30 million people have already been paid, and there are already evidences.
“We are going to even do a media talk for the to see the communities, because we are covering about 230,000 communities, cutting across all the 774 Local Governments, which means that, averagely almost every community in Nigeria has been captured under that is on this programme, and every village in Nigeria has been captured under this programme, and every village has a beneficiary. Every committee has beneficiaries across the entire country.
“I think this one of the most extensive program that has covered the entire country, you know, and effectively also, because the people that were targeting this program, we actually community based.
“So each village selected people that they are poor in the village, the women, the youths and the men, independently selected people that they feel they are poor, and they brought the name together.
“It is a community that signed off the name and sent to us. So they are not names from us, but their names from the communities that came up to us.
“And that’s why is the best way of targeting people when the village itself feel they can select the people that are poor within themselves, and they should be supported.
“So it is the communities that are telling us that these are people that you can support. So, we are supporting people that have been given to us by individual communities.”
Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) Plc has released its audited consolidated and separate financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2024, delivering a robust performance marked by double-digit growth in revenue and profitability.
Total revenue surged by 37 percent to N26.1 billion in 2024, up from N19 billion the previous year. Profit before tax also rose significantly, climbing 24 percent to N13.8 billion, compared to N11.2 billion in 2023.
The impressive results were largely driven by a 62 percent year-on-year increase in fee-based income, which rose to N11.9 billion from N7.3 billion, fuelled by heightened capital market activity. Ancillary services also contributed strongly, growing 27 percent from N8.1 billion in 2023 to N10.3 billion, buoyed by optimised service delivery and increased customer engagement.
CSCS maintained a strong balance sheet, with total assets rising 22 percent to N64.4 billion from N52.8 billion in the previous year. Key financial ratios also improved, with return on average equity at 30 percent, return on average assets at 20 percent, and earnings per share increasing to 239 kobo from 202 kobo in 2023.
Temi Popoola, chairman of the Board of CSCS, praised the performance amid a challenging economic climate.
“Despite the macroeconomic headwinds of 2024, we delivered strong results across key financial and operational indicators. Our strategy of consolidating our core offerings while expanding into new business areas enabled us to grow gross earnings by 37 percent, reaching N26.1 billion”.
Popoola added, “In light of this strong performance and our commitment to delivering long-term value to shareholders, the Board has proposed a dividend of N1.76 per share, amounting to a total payout of N8.8 billion.”
Haruna Jalo-Waziri, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of CSCS, emphasised the resilience and adaptability of CSCS’s business model. “Our 2024 performance highlights the sustainability of our revenue streams across both traditional and emerging segments.
“We continue to diversify into new areas and leverage technology to enhance scale and capacity in line with our strategic objectives. Amidst economic challenges, we grew operating income by 44 percent to N22.2 billion, while maintaining a cost-to-income ratio of 47 percent, reflecting our focus on operational efficiency.”
National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with SecDojo, SAS, a France-based cybersecurity training company, during the GITEX Africa 2025 event in Marrakech, Morocco.
L-R: Director General of NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa CCIE, and Chief Executive Officer of SecDojo, Mr. Younes Benzagmout at the signing ceremony, which took place during GITEX Africa 2025 in Marrakech, Morocco.
This collaboration aims to bolster Nigeria’s cybersecurity framework through targeted capacity-building initiatives.
The partnership will focus on establishing a Cybersecurity Academy, delivering advanced training programs, developing customized curricula, and fostering research and professional exchange.
NITDA’s Director General, Kashifu Inuwa, emphasized the importance of investing in human capital to drive Nigeria’s digital transformation and address the global shortage of cybersecurity professionals.
He highlighted Nigeria’s youthful population as a key asset in filling this talent gap.
Inuwa also advocated for integrating digital literacy and cybersecurity training into Nigeria’s formal education system, calling for collaboration between technology stakeholders and the Federal Ministry of Education.
He stressed the need for systemic integration of digital skills into academic curricula to prepare for the future.
SecDojo’s CEO, Younes Benzagmout, expressed enthusiasm for the partnership and reaffirmed the company’s commitment to supporting Nigeria’s cybersecurity professionals.
This collaboration marks a significant step toward securing Nigeria’s digital economy and enhancing its global competitiveness.
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