MTN Business, along with industry partners Huawei, Intel, Jasper, Cisco and the Innovation Hub, have all endorsed IoT as a more intelligent way of doing business in Africa.

Speaking at the 2017 IoT Conference and Awards event in Johannesburg, Mariana Kruger, General Manager of Private Sector at MTN Business says the rudimentary layer for IoT is already in place and businesses must now consider how to take it to the next level.

"We would like to be able to change stuff prior to it happening and if we have got information early enough, we can do that. Whether that is to save a life, improve the supply chain, improve customer satisfaction, improve profit or to even save a species - the potential is endless and this could well be the next revolution."

Jimmy Ju, IoT Regional Director at Huawei, reiterated Kruger's call for a more united effort to enable the possibilities of IoT.

"As Huawei we are looking forward to cooperating with any of our local industry partners and local developers including MTN to understand how we can bring our businesses together to create a profitable ecosystem in South Africa."

Adapt or die

Videsha Proothveerajh, EMEA South-West Commercial Director and SA Country Manager at Intel said by not adapting to the next wave of innovation in technology, businesses run the risk of becoming obsolete.

"This is just the beginning. We talk about IoT and what that means for the digital economy, but there are many technologies that if you look at them on their own they are able to disrupt business - but if you combine them, you could impact people's lives, their work and the way business does business. 3D is another important technology and you can see how IoT fits right into that sort of technology."

Clive Killops, Chief operating Officer at Key Telematics, which has used IoT to help protect African elephants by relocating them, said profit should not be the sole motive for tapping into IoT.

"I think it doesn't just have to be about profit. We can use IoT technology to leave the world in a much better place and we need to do that because we are using all resources and not leav8ng much for our children."