Big Data analytics has become an indispensable driving force for almost every sector in the business world. It encompasses massive volumes of data that build up on a daily basis, by people, machines, and different industries of business. In essence, data analytics has revolutionized the way the world operates. Africa, like any other continent in the world, is blessed with data professionals who possess data science and analytics skills. This data talent has the capability to contribute to economic development and growth in Africa through the use of big data analytics and intelligence. Data professionals are able to create predictive models and data insights that could help businesses and governments to make informed decisions. There is a vast range of things that data science and analytics can do. For instance, businesses can use data insights to ensure price optimization for their products and services, track customer behavioral changes against their different product offerings, track market trends, and build algorithms to improve client relations. Governments can use data analytics insights to identify potential operational risks, how to mitigate them, and improve operational efficiencies. Even though Africa has data professionals rapidly increasing across the continent, the use of data science to resolve a myriad of challenges that Africa faces remains a continuing subject of debate. From a Fourth Industrial Revolution perspective, I believe that as Africans we can use data insights to bring solutions to our challenges, drive innovation, create new business prospects, and prepare for unexpected disasters.

Africa has the ability to fully leverage the possibilities presented by big data intelligence to shape a better continent. Africa conflates a number of political, economic, and social challenges. The most apparent and evident ones are stagnant economic growth, high unemployment rate, high crime rate, inadequate health care services, environmental uncertainty, etc. It is therefore pivotal that these problems are solved by Africans, so hence they can relate to them better. Africa needs all the data scientists across the continent to come together collectively and collaborate in enabling a better future for Africa using Big data analytics insight. Together, as Africans, we can build data infrastructure and develop better coverage to offer innovative solutions that will change lives in Africa.

There is so much potential in Africa. Yet, we see a vast number of Africans relocating overseas. Better job opportunities may be the prominent reason why Africans relocate to other continents. However, there are many other reasons that are driving decisions for relocation. Trust me, it is not even better education. The relocation is for better lifestyle, less crime, better economic developments, safety, job security, and good health care services, to mention a few. One of the expressions I often hear people say, as a reason for their relocation, is that ‘Africa is slow.’ Do you know why they say that? You don’t have to look any further. We live in a fast-paced world, where simplicity and convenience are at the heart of a consumer. Everyone is on the move, everyone is in a hurry. Just visualize this for a second; any bus station you can go to; any shopping mall you can think of, you will never see anyone moving at a slow pace. Not only those who are walking but those who are selling products as well. Everything is moving quickly. Africans do not want to fall behind. However, since major innovation and digitization are mostly available overseas, while Africa is still developing, everyone wants to move abroad. As Africans, we need to realize the potential that we have to change our continent, especially from a data analytics and business intelligence perspective.

The private sector business is slowly but surely leveraging data insights to improve its operational efficiencies by optimizing its processes and taking advantage of digitization. Nonetheless, there’s still more to be done there. Take banks for instance, they work tirelessly to migrate their customers to digital platforms (digital banking) in an effort to deter an influx of customers from walking into the branches to do their banking. The question is, do Africans have trust issues? Do you think data science can help? Banks are already using data analytics and Business Intelligence to make everyday informed business decisions for a major part of their operations. It is important to note that with a bit of resistance from us Africans, this is still a work in progress. I believe that if we can leverage the data talent that Africa has, we can change the way we look at Africa. Developments that we see in other continents are possible in Africa.

Africa, nothing is impossible! We do not need to go overseas for better opportunities. We have data talent that can take Africa to the next level with data science. There’s an ocean of opportunities to curb this growing complexity of economic turbulence and environmental uncertainty and completely change the outlook of Africa. Our educated professionals in big data analytics have the potential to collect and analyze current data in different facets on the continent to utilize it to predict and anticipate what’s to be expected tomorrow using data insights. However, one of the challenges that some of the African countries are faced with is power outages and low-speed internet connection. These two problems are the stumbling blocks hindering data analysts from collecting and storing significant volumes of data since the data analysis process depends highly on adequate power sources and internet connection. That is to say, data infrastructure is a necessity to enable a data-driven Africa.

Let’s take a look into some of the challenges that Africa is faced with and unpack how African professionals skilled in data science and analytics can create a data-driven economy in Africa.

Government Systems Failing

Government systems are always unavailable to provide service. People wait in long queues from morning until evening. Sometimes go back home without even receiving any help. To give an example, just the other day I saw a post on someone’s WhatsApp status, where they were expressing their frustrations about the service they received at a certain government office. They alluded that they waited in a long queue all day, only to be returned home because they did not bring a certain document for the kind of service they wanted. Here I am thinking if the requirements were coherently specified somewhere in the offices, that would not have been the case. This is where data comes in, looking at the previous trends or behaviors of people coming through for such a service, the system would have picked which documents people are not aware of. From this data analysis, an education campaign or SMS communication is shared with the customers to be aware of such. In some instances, you are required to do an online application for certain services and still be requested to come in person to submit your documents. Government services need to implement proper systems that are able to recognize when a person has done a digital application. There are so many issues that the public sector is still falling behind with. Big data analytics can help improve these inefficiencies, as well as improve government process optimization.

Health Care sector

There are major challenges with quality healthcare services in Africa. For instance, shortage of essential health medicines, lack of access to proper medical facilities in rural areas, inability to detect early sicknesses, and health care management inadequacies. With a data-driven economy, it would be easier to generate insights that can identify which medicines are in demand, run early sickness predictions, and many other decisions that are taken in the health sector.

Crime and Violence

Crime is a big challenge in Africa. The high level of crime rate in the African continent is attributed to high unemployment, lack of financial security, inequality, and poverty to mention a few. It is no secret that many Law Enforcement professionals are stumbling upon thieves, murderers, human traffickers, etc, in an effort to combat these crimes. Some cases are closed even without catching the perpetrator. There are already strategies in place to reduce crime and catch the culprits engaging in crime. However, I believe that Law Enforcement could do more to control crime using data analytics intelligence. Collecting and analyzing data can help identify previous crimes, their root causes, and crime hot spots to enable them to deploy resources accordingly. With big data analytical insights, the police could leverage the use of drones to enable them to respond quickly at crime scenes. Data analysis can be used to fast-track crime investigations. For instance, the use of crime profiling, assessment of convicted criminals, and day-to-day monitoring of human trafficking.

Improvements in the above issues will contribute to more inclusive economic growth. I believe that we can get to a point where the continent of Africa is integrated and united, where economic development in the continent is data-driven. Data insights can help African businesses to identify new markets, and develop new products, and African governments can develop sustainable economies through improved operational efficiencies. Together, as Africans, we can unleash so much potential with youth and women's inclusion.

Driving Africa with data!!!