Focus on the Trends and Key Players in Data Analytics across Africa

Data analytics has been in great demand for the past few years and organizations have been investing much time and money in this technology. However, the current disruption caused by the COVID19 pandemic has created a sense of urgency to drive results. CEOs and boards of directors are beginning to wonder what the emerging trends in data analytics would be and how will they drive results.

For Chris Howard, the Chief of Research at US-based Gartner, 2021 has brought with it the imperative to generate more business value using innovative technologies and approaches to information. According to Mr Howard, as business partners grow more comfortable with identifying and using technologies, IT leaders will need to become more sophisticated in their partnership and collaboration.

When people hear data Analytics, it usually appears like something abstract to understand. In simplicity, data analytics is all about the extraction of valuable information from structured and unstructured data by using various algorithms, tools, methods, and techniques. This technology also helps to display all the things that are efficiently working on the various platforms of social media, marketing, content writing, and much more. 

Increasing in this 21st century, our daily lives leave behind a detailed digital record: our shifting thoughts and opinions shared on Twitter, our social relationships; purchasing habits, information-seeking behaviours, our photos and video – even the movements of our bodies and cars are all big data that those interested in human behaviour will find irresistible to capture. Little wonder why in 2016, data was referred to as the new crude oil by Clive Humbly!

According to ReportLinker, Africa data centre market size is expected to cross $3 billion by 2025, growing at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of over 12 per cent during the forecast period of 2020 – 2025. The report which was released in August of 2020 and titled “Data Center Market in Africa – Industry Outlook and Forecast 2020-2025” noted that the Africa data centre industry has witnessed a steady interest from major global cloud service providers such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft, along with Huawei over the last five years. 

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The increasing demand for cloud-based services and modular data centre solutions among enterprises, especially in SMEs and government agencies, are expected to drive the market in Africa. It is expected that over 70% of organizations operating in the region will shift to the cloud region by 2025. This obviously will usher in a new trend in the business of data and it will be of great interest if organizations start embracing this trend.

In a similar report by Gartner, by 2023, data literacy will become an explicit and necessary driver of business value, demonstrated by its formal inclusion in over 80% of data analytics strategies and change management programs. The above reports show the trend that businesses, organizations and SMEs that are involved in data analytics should start channelling their energy and strategies.

According to the World Economic Forum Future of Jobs survey, 2020 as posted by StatiSense – a data tech company in Nigeria – the top three job roles in increasing demands are Data Analysts and scientists, AI and Machine learning specialists, and big data Specialist. This shows that any data firm that positioned itself as professionals in this field and considered a Data Analytics training hub, would have positioned itself to meet the demand of the future…

EDITOR’S NOTE: Red the rest of the article on page 82 of our latest magazine edition.