A partner of PricewaterhouseCoopers, Femi Osinubi, has stressed the need for businesses across Africa to place much emphasis on data and analytics in order to attract more investments into their respective countries.
He contends, though businesses have demonstrated the relevance of data to their business growth, their seeming inability to scrutinize the information for further action, continuously affects investment decision across the region.
“We are saying that the data that you have is an asset to your organization and economy; if you understand a lot about your data, you can grow your business for the future…For instance Amazon will be able to understand a customer more by monitoring the constant visit to the company’s website,” Femi Osinubi stated.
Mr. Osinubi made the remarks at an event by PwC to expose businesses to the importance of data.
PwC engaged the participating organizations by ‘offering them ways to unlock the power of their data for further action.’
A recent survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers also indicated that CEOs considered data mining and analytics as the most strategically important digital technology.
Femi Osinubi who is also the Data and Analytics Leader at PwC also tells Citi Business News critical sectors other than banks and telcos could also hook onto data usage and strategize for growth.
“So we are also heading towards predictive analytics where we can actually predict and help one to determine what to do with his or her business in the next few years,” he opined.
“Data and analytics is a growing trend which is emerging globally…the likes of Google and Apple have used data and based on comments, they devise strategies to plan for the next year. They put together the customer complaints in a bid to serve the better,” Mr. Osinubi further stressed.
Meanwhile the Data Analytic practitioner has advocated the need for effective regulatory framework to protect the source and privacy of data providers.
“The regulators should work and that could improve the laws passed by Parliament. These also include the security and privacy of the data being published or sent around; those are very important and there should be laws around that.”
The Country Assurance Leader for PwC in Ghana, Michael Asiedu-Antwi however believes the passage of the data protection law should afford businesses a conducive legal framework to use and apply data to the benefit of their businesses.
“One important thing which has happened is the data protection Act which is going to help people feel at ease. Once people also get data, they will be required to use only the aspects that do not make the users expose some sensitive information that will be disingenuous to persons.”
Though he admits that it may be demanding for businesses to invest in data, Mr. Asiedu-Antwi explains to Citi Business News businesses are rather adopting the principles as they view future benefits as far outweighing the present costs to bear.
“More and more businesses are continuing to show interest in terms of understanding and developing a response to solve the concerns…the commitment is there but in terms of cost, the businesses will be more than ready to meet up with that considering the benefit from such compared to the costs that they are incurring,” he observed.
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By: Pius Amihere Eduku/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana
