E-Business
Gartner’s Report Points to the Growing Importance of Digital Business in Africa
Gartner, Inc.’s “Hype Cycle for ICT in Africa, 2015” report identifies over 30 key technologies and describes how they will impact business performance during the next 10 years.
“The Hype Cycle (see Figure 1) aims to help global strategic officers and domestic CIOs from the private and public sectors take account of the current state of important technologies across Africa, including their maturity, adoption and traction,” said Mbula Schoen, senior research analyst at Gartner.
“It will help them make informed decisions about where to invest and how to advance their operations locally.”
Innovations in information and communication technology (ICT) are dramatically changing the way African governments and businesses operate.
For example, sophisticated data mining is being used in smart agriculture in several countries to improve how crops are grown by predicting weather, demand and outbreaks of disease.
The biggest challenge remains the fact that one solution does not suit all countries in Africa. Companies trying to grow their business operations throughout the continent must understand the local market conditions within each country. Small deals stress the business models of many global vendors, to the advantage of local companies.
Africa is emerging in terms of the deployment and use of communications infrastructure. According to Gartner, spending on end-user communications services in sub-Saharan Africa will grow steadily in the next five years, and reach $71 million in 2019.
The largest group of enterprise solutions likely to experience “growing pains” as the ecosystems mature and expectations exceed performance centres on payment. It includes digital wallets, retail mobile payments and direct communications service provider billing.
This is apparent, for example, from the aftermath of the hype surrounding the launch of the Apple Pay service last year.
Global adoption of contactless transactions and NFC-enabled mobile payments has been slow, whereas SMS-based solutions have had better adoption in India and parts of Africa. Consumers’ lack of enthusiasm for retail mobile payments (mainly due to security concerns) and the unwillingness of large, multichannel retailers to invest in mobile payment processing infrastructures have put this technology almost in the Trough of Disillusionment. Mass global adoption is five to 10 years away.
Of the 35 technologies on the Hype Cycle, 13 will mature within the next five years and have a transformational or high impact on businesses. Of those, some will enable new ways of doing business across industries, such as bimodal IT operations.
An organisation with bimodal IT capability can aim to “do it right” for some projects, as was historically the IT department’s mission, but simultaneously strive to “do it fast” for others, where governance is less of a concern and speed or agility is paramount.
Over half the organisations in Africa already take a two-speed approach to IT projects, compared with the global average of 45 percent.
“The mobile telephony revolution that has transformed connectivity in Africa will continue to evolve, with further penetration in the next two years coming from ultra-low-cost mobile devices. The revolution is also drawing investors to mobile learning (m-learning), as this helps promote the evolution of mobile usage in Africa,” said Ms. Schoen.
Through 2015, emerging smartphone apps (such as augmented-reality viewers, smartphone e-book readers and scriptable mapping tools) will offer new delivery platforms for educational content.
However, platform differences will impact m-learning delivery technologies on smartphones for the remainder of the year. For example, technology-neutral content delivery tools, such as HTML5, may not have matured enough.
Certain types of innovative apps may evolve more quickly on more open platforms, such as Android, which impose fewer technical and commercial restrictions on developers.
In addition, the continued proliferation of connectivity in semiurban and rural parts of Africa could represent a powerful force to narrow the “digital divide,” one of the biggest social issues in Africa.
This goal will be addressed, in part, by Advanced Underserved Area Comms consisting of non-traditional communication systems like high-altitude balloons, airborne drones and very large constellations of small communications satellites, for regions underserved by terrestrial or conventional communications satellites.
Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) has directed all Data Controllers and Data Processors of Major Importance (DCPMIs), yet to register with the commission to do so immediately.
This followed a Federal High Court judgment affirming NDPC statutory powers to designate and register such entities.
DCPMIs are entities operating in Nigeria that handle sensitive personal data or large volumes of information, requiring mandatory registration with the NDPC under the Nigeria Data Protection Act (NDPA).
In a statement issued on Tuesday by Babatunde Bamigboye, head of Legal, Enforcement and Regulations at the NDPC, described the judgment as a major milestone for data accountability and regulatory oversight in Nigeria.
The commission said the ruling arose from a suit filed by Emmanuel Harunna against the NDPC in Emmanuel Harunna v. NDPC (FHC/L/CS/1116/2024), in which the applicant sought a declaration that Point of Sale agents were not Data Controllers or Processors of Major Importance under the Nigeria Data Protection Act and requested a perpetual injunction restraining the commission from registering them.
According to the statement, Justice F.N. Ogazi examined the commission’s Guidance Notice on Registration alongside Sections 5(d), 6(c), 44, 45 and 65 of the Nigeria Data Protection Act before concluding that the commission acted within its statutory powers in designating entities under the Major Data Processing – Ordinary High Level category as Data Controllers and Processors of Major Importance.
Quoting the judgment, the statement read, “The Nigeria Data Protection Act was enacted to promote accountability, transparency and responsible data governance. Registration enables the Respondent to identify entities engaged in significant data processing activities, monitor compliance.”
It added that the court held that, “Far from undermining the constitutional right to privacy, the registration framework is one of the statutory mechanisms designed to safeguard that very right by subjecting data controllers and data processors to effective regulatory oversight.”
The statement further quoted the court as saying, “Looking at the recitals of the Guidance Notice, there is every indication that the Guidance Notice is also aimed at protecting the privacy and security of data subjects, thus bringing the registration requirement of the Guidance Notice within the protective shield of Section 45 of the 1999 Constitution.”
According to the commission, the court also held that, “Remarkably, Section 63 of the Data Protection Act provides that the provisions of the Act shall prevail over any other law inconsistent with its provisions on matters relating to the processing of personal data.”
Reacting to the judgment, the commission described the decision as a significant boost to Nigeria’s data protection regime.
“The Commission appreciates the ground-breaking efforts of the court towards the advancement of the jurisprudence relating to data accountability in Nigeria, as eloquently demonstrated in this case,” the statement read.
Following the ruling, Vincent Olatunji, national commissioner and chief executive officer, had directed every Data Controller and Processor of Major Importance that had yet to comply with the registration requirement to register without delay.
The commission warned that entities failing to comply with the registration requirement could face legal consequences.
“Failure to register creates serious legal liabilities under the law, while compliance with registration requirements builds public trust and safeguards the fundamental rights and freedoms of data subjects in Nigeria,” the statement added.
The University of Nigeria (UNN) is set to partner with The Roxettes Group to establish a research and innovation centre focused on artificial intelligence (AI), smart and green mobility, and digital technologies, in a move aimed at strengthening research, entrepreneurship and technology-driven industrial development.
Chairman of The Roxettes Group, Arc. Dr. Kaycee Orji-Kelechi, announced the proposed partnership while delivering his acceptance speech after receiving an Honorary Doctor of Business Administration (Honoris Causa) during the university’s convocation ceremony.
The proposed facility, to be known as the Dr. Kaycee Orji Centre for Artificial Intelligence, Smart/Green Mobility and Digital Innovation, is expected to provide a platform for research, innovation and collaboration between academia and industry, with a focus on developing commercially viable solutions to local and continental challenges.
Orji-Kelechi said the initiative was conceived as a long-term investment in human capital and technological advancement rather than simply another physical infrastructure project.
He said the vision was to position the University of Nigeria among Africa’s leading institutions in artificial intelligence, smart mobility and digital innovation through research, entrepreneurship and technology development.
According to him, the centre will house five specialised laboratories covering artificial intelligence and machine learning, smart and green mobility, robotics and the Internet of Things (IoT), digital finance and financial technology, as well as cloud computing and advanced data centre technologies.
He also announced plans for the proposed Kaycee Orji Founders Innovation Challenge, an annual programme intended to identify, mentor and support innovative ideas from students, researchers and academic staff with the potential to become scalable businesses.
“Every student of this University should know that a great idea conceived in a classroom should have a pathway to becoming a patent, a startup, a global enterprise, and a solution that transforms society,” he said.
Orji-Kelechi disclosed that preliminary conceptual work on the project had commenced, with architectural and engineering designs being prepared by K.KH Contractors Ltd., a subsidiary of The Roxettes Group.
He added that discussions with the university would begin on identifying a suitable site for the project, while a comprehensive proposal containing architectural drawings, engineering designs and an implementation framework would be submitted after completion of the design phase.
Reflecting on his career, Orji-Kelechi said Africa must move beyond consuming innovation to creating it through investment in manufacturing, technology and entrepreneurship.
“We have pursued one simple vision: that Nigeria and Africa must move from consumption to production; from importing innovation to creating it; and from waiting for opportunities to building them,” he said.
He urged graduating students to see their education as a foundation for solving societal challenges through innovation, leadership and enterprise, adding that he remained committed to promoting industrial development, youth empowerment and sustainable economic growth.
The proposed collaboration forms part of broader efforts to strengthen university-industry partnerships, which are increasingly seen as critical to improving research commercialisation, innovation capacity and technology-led economic development in Nigeria.
National Population Commission (NPC) has announced commencement of full digital registration of births and deaths through the VitalReg platform, which became operational nationwide on July 1, 2026.
Chidi Ezeoke, federal commissioner representing Anambra, disclosed this in Awka during a press conference to announce commencement of full digital birth and death registration under the Electronic Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (E-CRVS) system and the marking of World Population Day commemorated every July 11.
He revealed that a total of 131 registration centres had been opened in the 21 local government headquarters and several communities in the state, adding that more centres would be opened later.
Ezeoke described the initiative as a major milestone in Nigeria’s Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) system, to ensure every birth and death in the country was captured through a digitally enabled registration platform.
“It builds on the launch of the E-CRVS system and the inauguration of the National Coordination Committee on Civil Registration and Vital Statistics by President Bola Tinubu on Nov. 8, 2023.
“A total of 4,011 functional registration centres has been established across the 774 LGAs of the federation and the commission iswas working to expand the number to about 8,000.
“In Anambra, 131 registration centres have been opened in the 21 local government headquarters and several communities. More centres had been proposed for the state,” he said.
According to the Commissioner, the VitalReg platform would provide faster registration services, 24-hour online access, digital certificate issuance where applicable, reduced paperwork and waiting time, improved data validation and a more secure national CRVS database.
While noting that the platform would serve as a foundational database to support other national data systems and strengthen interoperability across Nigeria’s digital identity ecosystem, Ezeoke urged Nigerians and other stakeholders to support the initiative by ensuring prompt registration of all births and deaths.
Speaking on the 2026 World Population Day themed, “Realising the Hopes and Aspirations of Young People – Today and for the Future”, the Commissioner called for greater investment in education, healthcare, skills development, decent employment opportunities and youth participation in governance for sustainable national development.
Earlier, Mr Obiakonwa Okagwu, state director, NPC, said the occasion served as a reminder of great opportunities provided to harness young people’s capabilities, which he said would shape the future of the country when adequately harnessed.
He called on residents to take registration of births and deaths as national responsibility, just as he urged the media to take the message on civil registration to all parts of the State.
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