Stakeholders in the emerging technologies, Data Centre and Power have stressed the need to strengthen the country’s digital infrastructure for the application of internet of Things, and artificial intelligence.

They spoke at this year’s IoT West Africa, Data Centre and Cloud Expo, co-located with Power and Water Nigeria organised by Vertex Next.

Abba Abubakar Aliyu, managing director, Rural Electrification Agency (REA) in his keynote address said that, for true sustainable development to take place in any sector, “we must create opportunities and possibilities for a strong and sustainable energy ecosystem. Within this ecosystem, digital infrastructure must leverage, or must be leveraged, as an enabler, not as an oversight”.

Speaking on the topic: “Building Digital Infrastructure for Sustainable Rural Electrification in Nigeria”, said that one of the most critical benefits of electrification and digital infrastructure nexus is the ability to enable remote monitoring of all grid installations, especially mini grids and solar home systems.

“So, in the past, the Rural Electrification Agency, which prides itself in over 600 mini grids across the country, had some challenges with respect to monitoring our systems real time.

“But with the advancement in the IoT system, IoT sector, as well as tech sector, we’re able to have sensors that report energy throughput real time. This is why the ability of digitally enabled real time tracking of generation, consumption and even technical faults provide us with the information needed to make better decisions on the go,” he said.

Dr. Aliyu who was represented at the event by Dr. Bala Tyoden, Project manager, Rural Electrification Agency of Nigeria, added: “For true sustainable development to take place in any sector, we must create opportunities and possibilities for a strong and sustainable energy ecosystem. Within this ecosystem, digital infrastructure must leverage, or must be leveraged, as an enabler, not as an oversight.

“We must understand that for digital infrastructure to thrive in rural education, policies must enable innovation. An example is the electrification act of 2003 that grants the rights to subnationals to joining the energy primary market so they can generate and distribute power now and other policy, all other policies in the pipeline to enable private sector participation in the sector.”

Dr. Aristotle Onumo, Director of Stakeholder Management and Partnerships at the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) who spoke on “A Bird’s Eye View of IOT: Mapping the Future of Connected Intelligence in Africa”, said that the global IOT industry itself is growing, and it is estimated that by 2030, we are likely to have close about 29 billion connected systems across the globe, and which is an increase from 15.1 million in year 2020, think about the massive Increase.

Think about the quantum Leap and the global IoT market also is expected to support 1.6 trillion by the year 2025 that is at the end of this year, according to Mackenzie, the market itself is extended to exceed more than 1.6 trillion. And that’s the market we are in, and that is the environment we are operating.

The question is, what does this mean for Africa? What does this mean for Nigeria? Remember, Africa is about is a whole of our close about 1.4 billion people, and Nigeria, within that context, consists of about 14% of African population. Think about such a good population.

Think about what happens in Sub Saharan Africa, where the penetration of mobile penetration has increased, and that’s the Africa that we are, and it’s expected to grow up to a 88% by the year 2030, that is Africa for you.

And with the mobile penetration, with the kind of mobile infrastructure that is existing even Africa today, it provides a fertile ground for IOT. It provides a fertile ground for us to leap frog opportunity, not that we want to replicate the past, but to reinvent what the future looks like, and that’s what is important for us to consider, to think about, to imagine, to reason around.

Consider what happens in agriculture, which almost accounts 60% of employment in Africa. Think about the transformation I can take with smart technologies in agriculture, where IoT sensors can now measure oil motions, optimize irrigation and track livestock in a time. These are realities. They are not imaginary.

According to him “Africa currently accounts less, much more, less than any other continent in the global narrative. I’m not just talking about statistics. I’m not just talking about words or numbers to discourage us, but it is a call for action. What then do we think will be the economic impact of IoT in Africa?

According to World Bank reports, digital technologies alone could add plus about $300 billion in Africa GDP even by the end of this year. And IoT is at the heart of digital transformation. Mackenzie also has estimated that IoT has the potential of economic impact across the global market, exceeding 1.6 trillion naira and trillion dollars by the year 2025 with significant value in agriculture, logistics, energy, public health, all key priority in Africa. Imagine using predictive analytics from IoT sensors to reduce the cost of harvest loss.

Think about it in African countries where the harvest loss, especially in agriculture, is up close to 30 to 50% think about how you could use IoT for diagnosis to combat diseases that claim 1000s of lives every year. They are not just tech innovation. They are life saving devices.

He identified some challenges in the quest to reap the benefits of IOT such as connectivity gaps, especially in rural areas. “You agree with me that even in some rural areas, even in some areas, you see how 2G 3G some are struggling with 4G and a few they had where the 5G is actually working at this moment, when you think about the energy, it is a critical issue, not only In Nigeria, but across Africa, these connected devices need to be powered through networks.

So power is an essential issue. Is a challenge that we must overcome, cyber security and other governance. If we’re going to be connected across internet, connected across machines, machine talking to machines, then the issue of cyber security becomes an issue. Governance becomes very imperative.

Government comes in, has a great role to play in providing policies and guidelines that will help us to operate responsibly now help us to operate within the internet space in a manner that will serve and create value for the public, and perhaps most importantly, the skill gap. Studies have shown that, apparently, skill gap, not only in Africa, but across the globe.

Federal Executive Council has approved a group life insurance scheme for federal government officials, civil servants, and some other workers at the federal level.

The approval was given at the FEC meeting presided over by President Bola Tinubu at the Council Chamber of the State House, Abuja.

The Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Didi Walson-Jack, who briefed State House correspondents after the meeting, said the scheme covers key government officials, comprising the President, the Vice President, the Chief of Staff, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, ministers, the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, permanent secretaries and employees of federal government ministries and treasury funded agencies.

The scheme also covers paramilitary agencies such as the Nigerian Immigration Service, the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps, the Nigeria Correctional Service, the Federal Fire Service, the Federal Road Safety Corps, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, and the Office of the National Security Adviser.

“The scheme underscores the importance that President Bola Tinubu’s Administration has placed welfare of staff, specifically the welfare of the federal public servant.

“The Group Life Insurance Scheme is a scheme whereby the Federal Government has taken out a life policy on each public servant. And this means that if the unfortunate incident of death occurs, the deceased public servants’ next of kin stands to have a benefit to help the family cushion the family at that time of loss,” Walson-Jack said.

The scheme is an annual one, and today’s approval was for the 2025/2026 policy year, which would commence from the date of payment of premium to underwriters in line with the no-premium, no cover policy.

However, she said the insurance scheme would expire at the end of 2026.

“The approval for today was for the appointment of 17 insurance underwriters for the group life insurance cover and the year 2025/2026. The premium is paid to the insurance companies for a duration of 12 months.

“So, this policy will expire next year. I just like to say that in as much as this policy has existed throughout this administration and even previous administrations, we find that not too many people know about the policy, and so we have, from my office, even planned to carry out a sensitisation, which will be coming up very soon,” she added.

Federal executive council (FEC) has approved the creation of MediPool, a group purchasing organisation aimed at reducing the cost of essential medicines and healthcare products across Nigeria. Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Muhammad Ali Pate, said MediPool would operate as a public-private partnership, leveraging the government’s purchasing power to negotiate better prices from suppliers.

Muhammad Ali Pate

“So it’s using the monopsony power of government as a large buyer of those commodities to negotiate lower prices and then channel those commodities,” Pate said.

According to him, the scope of MediPool includes “procurement planning, distribution monitoring, supply chain, logistics management, quality assurance, regulatory compliance, as well as ensuring that local manufacturers are supported.” He added that the initiative would also address “import substitution, financial management and payment systems, capacity building and training, and contingency planning to ensure steady availability of essential drugs through public-private partnership.”

Pate said the project had been vetted through the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission and benchmarked against other group purchasing organisations in Kenya, South Africa, Singapore, and Saudi Arabia. “We believe that this is a major intervention that will shape the domestic market, so that the demand for quality pharmaceuticals can be channelled in a way that lowers cost and also improves quality and stimulates local manufacturing,” he said.

He noted that the government had been exploring multiple strategies to lower pharmaceutical costs for more than a year. “Nigerians are hurting from rising costs,” he said. “It’s not limited to Nigeria. As you may be aware, even countries as far as the United States are placing executive orders to reduce the cost of pharmaceuticals.”

Pate warned that global shifts could impact medicine availability in Nigeria. If pharmaceutical companies respond to U.S. price caps by limiting supply or increasing prices elsewhere, he said, this “could disrupt the availability or affordability of certain drugs in Nigeria, particularly branded or speciality medicines.”

Meanwhile, the FEC also approved a contract worth N2.3 billion for the procurement and installation of a cardiac catheterisation machine at the Usman Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital in Sokoto state. Pate said the advanced medical equipment would enhance the hospital’s ability to diagnose and treat complex heart conditions, including heart attacks and irregular heart rhythms.