Nigeria’s Vibrant Ecosystem Powerhouse For IoT Development In Africa – Vertex Next MD

The Managing Director of Vertex Next, the organizers of the IoT West Africa conference, Shitij Taneja, has expressed that Nigeria’s vast youth population and the vibrant startup ecosystem have boost the Nigeria market thereby making it Africa’s next silicon valley.

This he explained that Nigeria now has a big market for IoT as people are adopting the technologies and this helped in the choice of Nigeria as the host of the event because of its pedigree as ‘Africa’s next Silicon Valley’.

Speaking at the IoT West Africa Conference in Lagos Shitij emphasised that Nigeria’s vast youth population and the vibrant startup ecosystem make it a powerhouse for technology development in Africa.

According to him, “The reason we are hosting the IoT West Africa, which is co-located with Africa data center and cloud Expo Africa is because we see a lot of potential in the market and the growing number of youths that are working towards the development of technology,” he said.

He stressed, with increasing investments in data centers coming into the country, Nigeria now has a big market for IoT as people are adopting the technologies. He said part of the purpose of the conference was to also bring in investors to invest in Nigerian startups that are creating products around emerging technologies.

On her part, Femisola Oyeniyi, GM, MTN Enterprise Sales Nigeria, expressed that leveraging on IoT for business transformation is a major thing for technology development in Africa.

She said, the potential in IoT projected at 11.1trn dollars however, stressed that there is need to leverage as about 40 percent are realisation for developing countries like Nigeria while 60 percent are realized in developed countries. That is why we see the potential is massive and this percent goes to the factory. Hence, there is need to maintain Infrastructures which is the best for value realisation.

Furthermore, she urged industry players to personalise interest and as well harness intelligent decision making as a major driver so won’t be left behind in the technology trend and growth stating that despite the challenges of IoT adoption in Nigeria remains unstructured ecosystem, connectivity/inoperability, security amongst others hence, there are high opportunity for IoT in Nigeria.

On Government Initiatives For Technology

The Director-General of NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa, disclosed on Tuesday while presenting a keynote during the opening of the IoT West Africa Conference in Lagos said the Federal Government through the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) have plans to establish research centres for emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), and blockchain, among others across the six geo-political zones of the country.

He added that the research focus areas for NITDA include IoT, blockchain technology, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV); additive manufacturing, AI, and robotics.

“We are establishing a special-purpose vehicle that is going to look into these key areas and also establish research centres across the six geo-political zones of Nigeria that will be targeting these six key areas of emerging technologies,” said Kashifu, who was represented at the event by NITDA’s Director of Corporate Planning and Strategy, Aristole Onumo.

“We want to encourage development and also have innovation sandboxes where we can support and encourage those who have ideas to come up with use cases and through that, we can help them to stand, help them to create businesses, and also take them to market,” he said.

Speaking on other initiatives of the technology development agency, the NITDA DG is also playing a key role in building talent by supporting the 3 Million Technical Talent (3MTT) program of the federal government.

According to him, the goal is to ensure that by the year 2027, three million Nigerians will have been technically trained, he conclude.

The IoT West Africa showcases emerging technologies and the vital role the telecoms industry plays in the economic growth and digital transformation of the area.

It underscores the commitment to enhancing the business landscape, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises within technology, agriculture, and manufacturing sectors, through the lens of digital innovation.

According to the organizers, the strategic importance of Lagos as the host city intertwines with Nigeria’s rapid development in technology, infrastructure, and a burgeoning digital economy.