The business and social development opportunity that lies in the Internet of Things (IoT) and the enhanced ability to track and control all things connected is widely acknowledged.

However, ICT service providers have also pointed out that while billions of things can be connected, there are also billions of points of contact to check to identify faults.

The question arises: Is Africa ready to take advantage of the opportunities that lie in connecting things, extracting information, connecting people and enhancing systems – and, ultimately, society?

There is no shortage of statistics available online, attributed to global research and analysis firms such as Gartner that help quantify the magnitude of IoT.

Some examples include that IoT will comprise 26 billion units by 2020, 50 billion ‘things’ will be connected to the internet by 2020 and IoT will generate $1.9 billion in total economic value-add by the same year.

Whatever the actual size, some ICT professionals caution that IoT will also lead to an increase in pressure on systems.

In an overview of the top 8 enterprise network and security trends for 2015, Perry Hutton, Fortinet Africa regional director mentions the collision between IoT and Industrial Control Systems.

“Industrial control systems are rolling out IP all the way to the control and measurement points. These networks are separate today and individual in nature. However, both need to deal with cyber threats, which can cause huge damage across industrial complexes, public operational networks (power grids) or consumers,” says Hutton.

Brent Lees, senior product marketing manager at Riverbed Technology says there are challenges to increased adoption of IoT and implementation of connectivity strategies in Africa.

“In southern Africa the biggest challenge is connectivity. IoT demands a significant number of homes to have reasonable high speed internet connections, and when connectivity strays across international boundaries then latency can become an issue,” he said.

If challenges like this can be effectively addressed, in terms of IoT and future application, the outlook for both businesses and consumers is positive.

Lees quotes a Gartner report The Future Smart Home: 500 Smart Objects Will Enable New Business Opportunities as saying that a typical family home, in a mature affluent market, could contain several hundred smart objects by 2022.

In terms of application, IoT also presents a range of stakeholders, including government, utilities and service providers, with the opportunity to better monitor and manage assets. It empowers them with the capability to automate processes and save on resources and manpower.

Lees says in South Africa and other key regions across the continent early adoption has been largely driven by the energy challenge.

“We have seen global utilities already using connected meters to track usage and pre-empt surges in demand or faults. Connected patient systems are already allowing healthcare providers to track the health status of outpatients and adjust treatment or send help where necessary. Every area of life – from work, to transport, healthcare, government service delivery and entertainment – stands to benefit from the innovations and efficiencies possible in a fully connected world,” he explains.

Africa can leapfrog

Pfungwa Serima, chief executive officer of SAP Africa, echoes the sentiment, referring to a report by Morgan Stanley, which predicted that the IoT could be an opportunity for several large industries, driving potential changes in business models and cost savings.

“What does this mean for us in Africa?” he asks.

“I believe it's a great opportunity for us not only to create entire new business models for companies, moving the value proposition from products to services, but to use technology to make a real impact at socio-economic level,” said Serima.

According to Serima, in the utility sector, Africa's utility companies need to meet the growing demands of urbanising populations and booming industrial sectors. IoT can help with smart metering and distribution, to be able to accurately measure and predict demand and generation.

“In agriculture, we could be using IoT technologies to improve yields. In healthcare, there's a real opportunity to use IoT to use our human capital more effectively, and deliver better services.

“In the capital goods sector, we could be streamlining industrial processes and helping marginal mining operations do more with less,” he continues.

Den Sullivan, head of Architectures Emerging Markets, Cisco Systems, explains that the real value-add in society today is the insight gained from information supply.

“The Internet of Things is about ultimately connecting the unconnected. Only about one percent of everything that is around us today is connected.”

It is about what can be achieved by going beyond machine-to-machine connectivity and moving into the paradigms of things being connected, then sourcing data, connecting people and using this to enhance businesses processes to effect positive change, says Sullivan.

While there is acknowledgement that issues like broadband connectivity and accessibility remain challenges, Sullivan believes that things have improved dramatically just in the last few years.

“Broadband penetration is key and what we’ve seen is huge bandwidth delivered to the African continent by undersea cables…which now entirely transverse the geography of the continent. There is also huge momentum around wireless connectivity … wireless is easy to cover more people at scale and that is the nature of the wireless.”

Sullivan emphasises that Africa has an advantage over other developed markets because it is not weighed down by the legacy of infrastructure issue and the difficulty in embracing change.

“Without having that legacy, Africa can actually leapfrog in a number of areas… you can move faster because you don’t have that legacy.”

LTE, metro wireless means that broadband can be delivered quickly and easily.

While Africa is some way away from multiple high tech connected environments across various sectors, the continent is making progress.

There are many examples of how enhanced visibility, acquired through IoT has impacted positively in Africa.

Sullivan points to sectors like mining, agriculture, mobile money and government services as compelling use cases in terms of IoT. These are examples of where business analytics has made - and continues to make a difference. There are numerous possibilities to utilise connectivity and analysis across a range of verticals including healthcare, education and transport.

From an environmental point of view, when lighting and power-hungry appliances such as heaters and air-conditioners are automated to work only when needed, there will be significant savings on power and lower carbon emissions.

Part of a networked economy

Santina Franchi, vice president database & technology, SAP EMEA, says some view IoT as one way to define the networked economy – because it is through the internet that connections and transactions happen.

Being part of the Networked Economy would offer Africa the opportunity to propel economies forward.

“The Networked Economy is an opportunity for Africa to cut through steps of evolution in the economy and jump straight ahead. Instead of looking at making investments in technology for what has been done up until now in the rest of the developed economies, Africa should look at making bold moves into the use of the networked economy that allows for faster and simpler ways to serve customers,” Franchi says.

She believes African enterprises are perfectly positioned to break away from traditional ways of managing IT and on ways of doing business.

Banking the unbanked is a new business model the effectively demonstrations how Africa naturally fits into the Networked Economy.

“It is here that Africa could truly lead the rest of the world,”