Internet of Things Presents a Great Opportunity for African SMEs

The internet of things is fast becoming part of mainstream conversations similar to Bitcoin. Internet of things has been touted to having the potential to change the way we live our personal and professional lives.

Internet of things is basically the ability of devices such as mobile phones, refrigerators, vehicles to connect to the internet by having inbuilt sensors and Wi-Fi capabilities.

Experts estimate that by 2020 there will be over 50 Billion connected devices to the internet. This present a lot of great opportunity to African entrepreneurs to develop applications that will make life easier, convenient and cheaper for Africans.

The possibilities are endless; take for example the challenge of the endless traffic in most African cities. Internet of things can enable communication between vehicles, traffic police central command and possibly personal calendars in the sense that your car can access important events in your calendar and map out an optimized route to office.

Traffic command can foresee vehicle movement before they leave their homes and better manage vehicle movements. Similarly in the home when you wake up your alarm can notify your microwave to warm breakfast or your home alarm system could alert you of an intruder and at the same time alert security apparatus or police of the same.

Similarly in public infrastructure development construction material manufactures can embed sensors to their materials such as cement, steel and others that are used in construction. Once built the infrastructure such as bridges, roads, railways will have the capability to transmit critical data on their performance and in their timely maintenance hence help avoid catastrophes.

Security poses an opportunity and a threat to the internet of things ecosystem; threat in the sense that one may not be sure if the information being shared is secure, issues of privacy among others, opportunity in that it will give rise to more entrepreneurs willing to develop solutions that are unique in providing advanced internet security solutions, data cloud storage among other innovative solutions

The opportunities with Internet of things are endless and it’s because of this that it will continue to generate more debates and discussions.