Digital industrial firm General Electric (GE) hosted its East Africa Roadshow event in Nairobi to press upon local industry the need for digital transformation.

Businesses including Microsoft, Safaricom and iHub attended the event, which was organised to highlight the value of an emerging wave of technology defined by machines that are connected to multiple applications and platforms.

It also emphasised the impact of massive amounts of data transmitted via the cloud/ internet which makes it possible to understand, operate, improve and service machines remotely.

According to GE, investment in the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is expected to top $60 trillion during the next 15 years. And by 2020, over 50 billion assets will connect to the Internet.

The company claims that industrial data is growing twice as fast as any other sector yet less than 3% of that data is tagged and used in a meaningful way.

GE also believes digitisation can help utilities deal with the problem of an ageing workforce and "a weak pipeline of new talent and potential productivity gap as new employees are recruited and trained."

The company refers to a report by the World Economic Forum (WEF) which states that digitisation in the electricity sector can serve as a catalyst for job creation.

"Digital initiatives will create up to 3.45 million new jobs between 2016 and 2025 - translating to 10.7% job growth in the electricity industry. Job creation potential is highest in the consumer renewables sector, with energy storage integration creating up to 1.07 million new jobs. New jobs in smart asset planning (925,000 new jobs) and asset performance management (596,000) more than address job loss from automation or more efficient technologies," according to GE.

The company has confirmed that it will bring industrial digitisation technology to the Kenyan market by connecting software, apps, and analytics to industrial businesses.

Getty Melaku, Chief Financial Officer for GE Africa said: "We are excited to bring our cutting edge digital solutions and expertise to Kenyan businesses to optimise operational and business innovations for increased productivity and profit. We see a huge opportunity for Kenya and the continent at large to benefit from the digital industrial revolution and leap-frog existing industrialisation models, and quickly improve competitiveness in the global economy".

Abu Sulemana, Chief Information Officer for GE Africa, added, "The digital industrial revolution is both a cultural and technology shift and companies that don't evolve, will fail to deliver critical business outcomes and stunt their productivity gains. Our customers in Africa demand the same equipment performance as the rest of the world and are constantly looking at ways to enhance asset performance. Forty of GE's oil and gas customers in Africa are using digital solutions to optimise operations."

Renewable energy

The company, represented by its Energy Connections division, participated in the African Utility Week hosted in Cape Town in May.

Lazarus Angbazo, CEO of Energy Connections Business, GE, Sub-Saharan Africa, said in Africa, every country has to have a diversified energy resource mix and South Africa is well equipped to effectively manage sophisticated energy technologies, including the ability to handle nuclear power resource.

He added that adds that financing remains a key consideration and includes incorporating capital outlay and the capacity to define and structure projects so that these are bankable.