Chinenye Anuforo
Datacrest Technology Limited, an information technology and software developer organisation that partners original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), has unveiled its smart city solutions in Nigeria.
The company introduced the solutions at the recently concluded Oracle Cloud Day 2019 in Lagos, with a promise to help government, organisations and individuals solve issues around traffic gridlocks, energy efficiency, and waste management.
Speaking to the press during the event, the managing director, CEO of Datacrest, Mr. Kehinde Olashore, said, as a data-driven company, they were passionate about offering practical solutions with the aid of data to meet the growing needs of corporations and governments. We have a suite of products on offer, from CRM to ERP, business intelligence to artificial intelligence technologies.
“We are also focusing heavily on groundbreaking technologies like Blockchain. We have a number of use-cases, which we are currently deploying in Nigeria. We also deal with intelligent chatbots, and we have a vast range of IT solutions for different aspects of industries.”
Smart city solutions
“There are issues we are trying to solve in the smart city space. We look at the pain points for different industries by either saving money, enabling efficiency or redefining the current solutions they have for either reduction in human power or time-related issues.
“The model we have solves issues around waste management, parking, traffic and lighting management using efficient, intelligent or IoT devices or sensors to identify cases or rules that need to be applied.
“Where there is high-density of traffic, how best can it be resolved? We can use smart sensors to identify how many cars pass through certain roads, toll gates or bridges so as to prepare for efficient traffic management on those areas,” he said.
On waste management, Olashore said that there are sensors that can detect individual apartments, detect wastes and pick them up and take the refuse to a depot. This can be used on a vehicle that is autonomous and it works efficiently.
“There is also a way to manage your energy – to regulate usage in the morning, during the day and at night. You can maximise the use of energy by identifying your pain-points. These are smart ways of improving our society.
“In certain areas, they are using trains, whereas we use buses here. There is the opportunity to use sensors to identify how many buses are needed on a particular route and at what time of the day.
“As a company, we are trying to solve problems that we have identified in Nigeria. Traffic is one of such challenges. That is why mega cities like Lagos should use alternative means of transportation such as buses and trains. Structures need to be built and maximised. We also believe you need to use technology to improve on our environment, because each of the states has different needs. The most important thing for the states is to identify the most cost-effective solution and maximise it.”
On the readiness of states to adopt these solutions, he said, “I strongly believe states will benefit a lot by adopting these smart city solutions.”