Darshana Deka, conference producer for the IoT West Africa, says Nigeria must move beyond its current reliance on solar energy and explore broader renewable energy options to effectively power its growing digital economy.

Ms Deka said this in an interview in Lagos on Thursday. She said the country’s power sector held huge potential but was yet to be fully optimised to support digital infrastructure growth.

“As for the regulatory gaps, I see a few gaps, not in the IoT market, but rather in the power market. The power market in Nigeria is huge. It has massive potential, and while it is being utilised to the extent of solar, there are many other renewable and sustainable energy sources that can be explored,” she said.

Ms Deka noted that expanding beyond solar energy would be critical to meeting the growing demand from data centres and other digital infrastructure.

On the vision behind IoT West Africa, Ms Deka said the platform was created to demonstrate how multiple sectors collectively drive the digital economy.

She explained that the initiative was designed to highlight the interdependence of these sectors.

Ms Deka added that this approach had contributed to the emergence of what she described as critical infrastructure in Nigeria.

Highlighting the gaps in the data centre ecosystem, Ms Deka said Nigeria still required more local capacity despite increasing investments. She stressed the importance of data sovereignty, noting that countries must retain control over their data.

On the impact of the platform, Ms Deka said IoT West Africa and Data Cloud Expo (Power and Water) had facilitated collaboration among key stakeholders.

“We have brought together people who are now sitting together to make changes, such as industry leaders, innovators, policymakers and investors. These are the people who can shape Nigeria’s 2030 economic goals,” she said.

Ms Deka added that the conversations enabled by the platform were beginning to translate into tangible outcomes.

“We are seeing some of these discussions materialising into action, and that is what we have been able to achieve,” she said.

(NAN)