THE Chief Executive Officer of AKD Digital Solutions, Daere Akobo has said that massive investment in data refinery will help Nigeria to harness the full potential of the oil and gas industry and other sectors of the economy.
According to the oil and gas expert, data refinery would reposition the country’s economy from ‘grass to grace’.
The CEO said these during his presentation titled,’ Building Africa’s First Data Refinery’ at the TED X MambillaStreet.
The TED X event covered by this newspaper was with the theme: ‘Portals: A Conversation on Access’ sponsored by PANA Holdings among others.
The event featured other speakers including Nigeria’s former Minister of Petroleum and Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd, Emmanuel Ibe Kachukwu, the MD/CEO of NigerComSat, Jane Egerton-Idehen and Co-Founder and CEO of ThriveAgric Limited Uka Eje.
Explaining his concept, Akobo said data refinery is what a person or a country wants to create with raw data, adding that “it starts with the mind”.
According to him, data refinery is the next oil which Nigerian government should channel resources to in order to diversify the economy.
He said there is no way Nigeria can be consistent in energy and other policies if they are not digitised.
Akobo said, “The over dependence on oil has kept us where we are. To break out of where we are is to harness the data refinery because today we have decayed resources. Most of our oil assets are obsolete, and obsolence cannot replicate themselves,but data is exponential.
“There must be a typical mind shift on how to invest in data and do better. Digital refinery talks about an organization of a country. It talks about exponential growth and boundless wealth. Oil seats on it. Agriculture, arts and other sectors seat on it.”
In his submission, the expert said that the essence of data refinery is to utilize data for the social wellbeing of Nigeria.
Akobo explained, “The journey of a thousand miles starts with the right mind. I saw that building the first digital refinery in Africa is what will take us (Nigeria) from grass to grace.
“I came to liberate digital refining in this country by creating transparency in our entire system. Today, we have oil and there is a shift from doing the right thing to pursuing militants. It cost us so much money to catch the thieves.”
He said companies like Infosys provide digital solutions and make about $20bn in annual turnover, adding it as a result of “what they do with data.”