Dr. Krishnan Ranganath, Regional Executive West Africa at Africa Data Centres (ADC), received a prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award at the Africa’s Beacon of ICT Merit and Leadership Awards held during the weekend in Lagos.

Widely recognized as the industry’s most respected annual event in Nigeria, the Awards ceremony acknowledged Dr. Krishnan’s (often referred to as “Dr. Krish”) unwavering dedication and significant contributions to the nation’s Information and Communications Technology (ICT) landscape.

“We are delighted to present you with the Lifetime Achievement Award at this year’s distinguished Africa’s Beacon of ICT Merit and Leadership Lecture,” declared Mr. Ken Nwogbo, founder of Nigerian CommunicationsWeek, the event organizer. The Lecture Series itself focuses on initiatives propelling Nigeria’s position on the global ICT map.

Mr. Nwogbo further highlighted that Dr. Krishnan was one of only four individuals selected for the esteemed Lifetime Achievement Award by a rigorous selection committee. This recognition honors their consistent commitment to providing innovative ICT solutions and services that fuel Nigeria’s thriving digital economy.

Dr. Ranganath boasts over three decades of experience in the global ICT sector, collaborating with various multinationals across emerging markets. His impressive career includes managing complex projects in developing economies and fostering strong relationships with leading global players across industries.

A key figure in establishing and managing networks and data centers in emerging economies, Dr. Krishnan possesses a proven track record of optimizing resource allocation for achieving organizational goals. He is also actively involved in promoting local African content and crafting long-term ICT strategies and roadmaps for various African countries, with a specific focus on West Africa’s telecommunications infrastructure development.

Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation & Digital Economy through the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) in collaboration with Data.Org has launched a Responsible Data Management Course, a free online course resource targeted at equipping public servants with the fundamentals of ethical data management.

It bridges the theoretical aspects of the Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023 with practical knowledge of data rights and responsibilities, helping public servants navigate data management complexities and mitigate vulnerabilities in public service.

“This partnership between the NDPC and Data.Org is the first in a series of engagements that we have planned to equip civil servants responsible for data management with the knowledge and skills necessary to operate and engage in a rapidly developing work environment that is being enabled by the implementation of Digital Public Infrastructure,” said Dr. ‘Bosun Tijani, the Honourable Minister of Communications, Innovation & Digital Economy.

The Responsible Data Management Course is designed for Heads of IT, Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs), Data Protection Officers (DPOs), IT & Cybersecurity Personnel, and Officers in roles that deal with data processing and privacy within Federal and State MDAs. This is regarded as a platform to train 10,000 public servants in data management.

The concise, self-paced online learning resource which is designed to be completed in just 2-3 hours, will be available in four (4) cohorts, ensuring broad accessibility and continuous learning opportunities. Certificates would be issued to participants at the completion of each cohort.

Registration begins May 28, 2024, via https://dmc.ndpc.gov.ng. The schedule is as follows:

– Cohort 1: June 19 – July 17, 2024
– Cohort 2: July 22 – August 17, 2024
– Cohort 3: August 19 – September 14, 2024
– Cohort 4: September 16 – October 12, 2024

Dr. Vincent Olatunji, NC/Chief Executive Officer, NDPC, stated, “The privacy issues arising from emerging technologies, which were not envisaged many years ago, are becoming increasingly prominent. Accordingly, we are implementing appropriate measures to enhance the capacity of Nigerians in the Data Protection ecosystem. The Responsible Data Management Course is one of such initiatives designed to equip Nigeria Public Servants with relevant skills to be globally competitive.”

Dr. Uyi Stewart, Chief Data and Technological Officer, Data.Org, notes that the” Responsible Data Management Course provides public servants with foundational data science knowledge and skills to make informed decisions about data that reflect the practical tenets of the Nigeria Data Protection Act, and helps them to understand the ethical handling of data, safeguarding the privacy and rights of individuals, as well as effective data governance.”

By delving into the principles of responsible data handling and the lifecycle of data management, this course equips public servants with the knowledge of regulatory requirements and the ethical frameworks that guide their application. This dual focus prepares public servants to make informed decisions that reflect both the letter and the spirit of the law, ensuring that their actions contribute positively to the trust and confidence in public institutions.

Responsible Data Management Course for Nigerian public servants underscores the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation & Digital Economy’s commitment to advancing the digitization of public services and integrating technology into daily interactions.

Marketers are prioritising AI implementation over all other initiatives this year, according to new Salesforce research in the ninth State of Marketing report.

With customer standards for personalisation continuing to rise year after year and marketing technologies constantly evolving, marketers need to act fast to keep up. Many see AI as a hack to do just that: a go-to for sharper personalization and efficiency, and now, creativity at scale with generative AI. Yet data challenges — from unification, integration, and security — are slowing marketing teams down.

With insights from over 4,800 marketers across 29 countries, the State of Marketing report highlights how top-performing marketers are outdoing their competition by embracing AI and other new opportunities while mitigating these data, trust, and security challenges.

Marketers pursue more tailored engagement amid rising customer expectations

Increasingly, marketers aim for more customised experiences based on detailed data like individual behaviours, preferences, interactions, or other specific indicators. And they are looking to AI to deliver more insights, predictions, automated workflows, and content. As a result, marketers consider having a data and AI strategy of utmost importance. On average, today’s marketers are able to fully personalise across five channels, with high-performers tailoring six channels and underperformers managing to fully personalise across only three.

Channels where content is easy to test and iterate on the fly, like mobile messaging, email marketing, and social media, see the most advanced personalization efforts. On the other hand, channels demanding more production time and planning like audio, organic search, and TV/OTT have the most work to do with 43%, 42%, and 41% seeing full personalization, respectively.

Marketers rev up AI adoption, but underperformers stall out in the evaluation stage

Marketers are pulled in many directions, and are focused on improving AI adoption. However, they’re struggling to actually implement AI and create cohesive journeys, among other difficulties.

Ironically, AI could be one tool to help teams overcome such challenges. Salesforce Chief Marketing Officer Ariel Kelman highlights how companies are entering “a new era of AI, catalysed by the generative gold rush,” and that the technology is being embraced by marketing organisations. As he sees it, “marketers are leading the charge by embracing rapid advancements in the technology to better connect with customers and prospects.”

Marketers are eager to implement AI into their own work streams: 75% are either experimenting with or have fully implemented AI in their operations. A closer look reveals that the embrace of the technology varies by performance level.

The majority of high- and moderate-performing teams are already rigorously testing, tweaking, and incorporating AI into their operations. Still, more than one-third of underperformers have yet to graduate from the consideration phase. In fact, high-performing marketing teams are 2.5x more likely than underperformers to have fully integrated AI into their operations. Until underperformers pivot from passive planning to hands-on action, AI’s advantages will continue to elude them.

Marketers embrace AI to predict, create, and integrate at scale

Sixty-three percent of marketers leveraging AI say they use generative while just over half (54%) are using predictive. And despite its relative novelty, generative AI use cases already rank among marketers’ favourites alongside predictive applications. As a result, teams are harnessing both types of AI for critical use cases like automating customer interactions and generating content — activities that will augment creativity and accelerate productivity.

Despite AI enthusiasm, concerns about trusted data remain

Compared to their peers in other departments, marketers are especially concerned about falling behind on generative AI adoption. Eighty-eight percent of marketers worry about missing out on generative AI’s benefits, compared to 78% of sales and 73% of service colleagues.

Even so, senior marketers remain cautious, citing concerns such as data and job security. Compared to their peers further up the corporate ladder, on-the-ground team leads are particularly wary about job stability. One in four team leads are worried AI will replace their job, compared to one in five executives. For their part, CMOs are most concerned with data leaks, with 41% citing data exposure as their top concern compared to 29% of VPs and 32% of team leads.

While data leaks are marketers’ number one generative AI concern, not having enough of the right data falls at number two. To capture enough valuable information, marketers are primarily leveraging customer service data and transaction data, showing an effort to partner with colleagues across sales and commerce departments to accomplish this. However, unification of that and other data — such as unstructured data from emails, NFTs, and more — remains a challenge.

In fact, only 31% of marketers are fully satisfied with their ability to unify customer data sources. What’s more, only approximately half of marketers say their systems automatically and regularly update with data from other departments.

Without fully integrated data, marketers’ ability to derive sharp insights is blunted, leaving core activities like analysing performance, suppressing audiences, and building campaigns powered by out-of-date or incomplete information. It even jeopardises marketers’ top priority: effectively leveraging AI.

A closer look at the survey results shows that fully integrated data is more common among high-performing marketing teams, suggesting that investing in unification can give marketers an edge. As Kelman explains, “a strong data foundation will be critical to AI success for marketers as they work to bring together and unify customer data for real-time activation.”