20
BUSINESS DAY
Tuesday 07 August 2018
BDTECH
E-mail: jumoke.akiyode@businessdayonline.com
Data that speaks – Takes from the data analytics and visualization workshop Stories by JUMOKE AKIYODE-LAWANSON
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ith the evolution of the 4th industrial revolution, the need to be skilled in the area of data analytics and visualization cannot be over emphasized. Data has transformed the world we live in. It is the fuel for success for any size organisation across all industries. Insights from data help you innovate and make smarter decisions. Being data-driven is about having the power to explore data and make predictions ensuring that the appropriate and accurate data required to answer critical business problems is collected, analyzed and presented effectively to drive maximum value. Data analytics and visualization is an expanding field concerned with analyzing, modeling, and visualizing complex high dimensional data. It offers tremendous opportunity for career growth. This involves exploring the use of the latest tools and analytical methods to interpret and communicate findings in ways that change minds and behaviors. Having seen its relevance, African Girls in Science and Technology Initiative (AfroTech Girls) introduced another Educate series, Data
L-R: Adeola Shasanya; co-founder, Afro-Tech Girls, Ijeoma Nwagwu; member of the Afro-Tech Girls board of advisors, and Morenike Johnson; co-founder, Afro-Tech Girls, at the recently concluded ‘Data that speaks’ workshop held in Lagos.
That Speaks, a Data Analytics and Visualization workshop using Tableau. “Our mission at Afro-Tech Girls is to encourage, educate and empower African girls of secondary and university levels in the Science Technology Engineering and Maths field (STEM) fields to follow through and achieve whatever goals they set for themselves through mentorship, teamwork, creativity and innovation,” the organizers say. Data That Speaks was a 5-week, Saturday only work-
shop for female university students and young professionals which introduced students to the field by covering state-of-the-art modeling, analysis and visualization techniques. The workshop took place at the conference hall of the Beni Gold hotel, Victoria Island on the 16th of June through 14th of July, 2018 with 18 ladies in attendance from different fields and four guest facilitators coming in each week to teach them on topics in Data Science, Data Analytics, Data Storytelling
and Data Visualization using Tableau. Each participant was made to work on a personalized project applying the learning and skills gained from the class. “We had Dolapo Amusat a creative and business analyst who taught the students introduction to Data Science and Data Analytics using Alteryx and Knime, Njideka Okafor a software developer/ analytics enthusiast who taught predictive and descriptive analysis using excel, Jubril Juma a UX researcher from Google who taught data
storytelling, different data visuals and what chart works best and Abisola Oni, a product consultant (Tableau) who took the final class on data visualization using Tableau,” Adeola Shasanya, one of the founders of Afrotech Girls said. The workshop came to an end on the 14th July and was commemorated with a presentation ceremony for the participants to provide an opportunity for them to share some of what they had learnt and network with members of the ATG community. The occasion was graced by Wole Oyekanmi, COO of Quantextive as guest speaker who spoke on “Application of Data Analytics in financial services” and other invited guests. Finally, there were short presentations from three of the participants with a question and answer session. Ifeoluwa Adedeji a 500L student of College of medicine, University of Lagos worked on the analysis of child mortality rate in the US over time, Chisom Ezeilo, a programme associate and natural hair enthusiast worked on the rate of return to natural hair and finally, Raqeebat Buhari, worked on the correlation between anxiety in children and overprotective parenting using linear regression and also the trend of performances of counties over the years in the World Cup games.
ICT company reiterates commitment to CBN’s financial inclusion agenda
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nlaks, a leading system integrator and Information Communication Technology(ICT) infrastructure provider has reiterated its commitment to working towards achieving the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)’s financial inclusion vision 2020 strategy by bringing financial services closer to the people through mobile banking and other ICT tools. The CBN in collaboration with stakeholders launched the National Financial Inclusion Strategy in 2012, aimed at further reducing the financial services exclusion rate in Nigeria to 20 percent by 2020, down from 46.3 percent in 2010. Femi Adeoti, managing director, Inlaks’ said that the company believes that achievement of CBN’s financial inclusion goals will significantly impact the nation’s economy and so he made the promise of commitment while delivering a keynote address at the
Nigerian ICT Impact CEO Forum and African Digital Awards in Lagos, where he bagged the ICT Man of the Year award. According to him, the CBN’s approval given to Inlaks to function as a SuperAgent in the nation’s financial services system is also part of the effort to bring financial services closer to the people. Adeoti, who was represented by Oladimeji Talabi Koyejo, the director of value added services, said that the organisation through the provision of its services to the people is committed to extend the frontiers of CBN’s financial inclusion in Nigeria. ‘We are committed to the CBN’s financial inclusion agenda most importantly in the areas of poverty reduction, employment generation, wealth creation, improving welfare and general standard of living of Nigerians’, he said. In his address, Adeoti,
explained that 61percent of adults in the country who are currently excluded from the formal financial systems are under age 65 years. To attract these set of Nigerians into the formal financial system, Adeoti listed agency banking, mobile banking, electronic wallet,
internet banking, call centre banking and the automated teller machine [ATM], as some of the requisite channels that would make it possible to bring Nigerian adults closer to the fore front of financial development. ‘Mobile payment technology has become increas-
L-R: Ibeanu Chike Chamberlain, managing partner, Zdesigns and Development Consulting; Simon Bromfield, territory manager Africa, Autodesk Inc.; Vijay Raina, sr. technical sales specialist – AEC, Autodesk; Louis Iwegbuna, Nigeria Business Development Manager, Autodesk Inc,; Dolapo Ojelabi, industry specialist, Ideate Technologies; at Autodesk’s Future Forum, Nigeria recently.
ingly significant, especially in the context of developing economies, where many low income households and micro enterprises do not have ready access to financial services,’ he said. He added that with an impressive customer base including six Central Banks in West Africa, 18 of the 24 commercial banks in Nigeria and other major customers in the West African region, Inlaks has become the dominant information technology company in Africa. Adeoti concluded that Inlaks will work closely with the CBN and other stakeholders to reach the underserved population, as well as the financially excluded, in order to ensure that informal workers in Nigeria have access to affordable financial services through its agent network. The agent network is expected to also address social challenges in key areas such as health, insurance, credit accessibility, savings and wage payment.
Stakeholders collaborate to enhance digital banking capabilities
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nformation Technology (IT) stakeholders and players in the financial services sector have decided to collaborate in a bid to boost the capabilities of digital banking in Nigeria. Temenos, a global banking software company, HID, an American manufacturer of secure identity solutions and Inlaks, a leading system integrator in Sub-Saharan Africa, all partnered with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on a recently held forum to highlight how digital banking technology is reshaping the financial services industry. The forum provided insights on various market trends and advances both locally and globally. Presenting a keynote address at the forum with the theme “Banking in the Digital Age”, Adedeji Adesemoye, deputy director, other financial institutions supervision (OFIS) department, CBN, identified fundamental approaches that banks can use to enhance their digital capabilities. Adesemoye itemized financial inclusion and digitisation as a means that can foster innovation across products, business models and allow straight-through processing that can automate and digitize a number of repetitive, low-value, and low-risk processes. He further stressed that the need for banks to have a vision of their future, technology, infrastructure and a well-defined corporate culture are major factors that determine whether a bank is successful in this age. In a similar vein, Nehal Batavia, head of sales – Microfinance & Saas (Africa), Temenos, shared that Temenos has been providing innovative solutions to financial institutions worldwide for 25years. Batavia stated that over 3,000 financial institutions use Temenos software, and among those are 41 of the top 50 banks in the world. He further shared that over 500 million end-customers rely on Temenos software in over 150 countries of the world. Batavia said at the event that Temenos also provides innovative software solutions to banks of all sizes, “all around the world, helping them to thrive in the digital banking age”. Adeyemi Ademiluyi, cyber security manager stated that there was no way that the issue of cybersecurity could be left unattended to when discussing banking in the digital age.