In what has been billed to be Africa’s leading Internet of Things (IoT) event, The Internet of Things forum Africa is set to explore transformational IoT trends and the benefits of IoT in a number of industries in Africa.
The Internet of Things forum Africa (#IOTAF) event which will hold on 26th-27th March, 2019 in Johannesburg, South Africa, will gather leaders, solution providers, tech experts, and decision makers from various industries to discuss technology related topics such as Smart Cities, IoT for Public Safety, Digital Transformation, AI, Blockchain, IoT strategy and IoT adoption.
Some of the target industries for the event are Telecom, Rail and Transport, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Mining, Finance, Energy alongside many others with its content shaped towards helping these industries understand the concept of IoT and harness its full potential.
Big players in different industries get caught up in the hype of futuristic potential of IoT. However, its ability to solve problems confronting the African continent now is being ignored. The IoT innovation has various practical solutions to problems in the diverse sector of society ranging from Healthcare, education, security, business. However, adoption of this innovation in the continent leaves us with a question to answer owing to the pace of development in the continent.
IS AFRICA READY FOR IoT REVOLUTION?
In more developed countries, IoT technology has been a groundbreaking revolution, inspiring enormous change in how people do things and how industries operate. IoT technology has recorded much success since it disrupts creating new things, e.g. digital money (Bitcoin), AI, etc. likewise changing how things used to work. With the groundbreaking revolution the IoT has inspired, the African continent is keying into the potential of this disruptive technology.
Africa is experiencing a growth in smartphone devices, machine-2-machine, access speeds, and mobile data, pointing the fact that local appetite for connected devices continues to grow. Presently, more than 4 billion Africans own a mobile device connected to the internet, implying that there is already a large market for IoT technology to grow.
The proliferation of mobile services in Africa is a strong enabler for IoT growth, due to high mobile coverage and connectivity, many local operators offer prepaid data roaming solutions to enable the M2M market in Africa.
As individuals in Africa have embraced adoption of the IoT technology, so has industries, businesses, companies, and start-ups also leveraged on the technology to proffer solution to problems. Many startups in Africa take advantage of the vacuum the technology could solve to create applications that solve problems plaguing the continent as they use the edge to solve various problems across various sectors from power to Agriculture, Education etc. in the continent.
The opportunities this technology brings to Africa are endless, and it is hoped that forums and conferences such as the forthcoming Internet of Things Forum Africa in South Africa will help to further conversations on how IoT can be used to solve African problems.