Internet of Things Africa introduces Sigfox to Nigeria, boosts infrastructure with LPWAN

Internet of Things (IoT) Africa has signed an agreement with the OG network pioneer and leading IoT service provider, sigfox to bring the service to Nigeria.

By the arrangement, this then credits IoT Africa as the official Sigfox Operator (SO) in Nigeria.

Launched in 2019, IoT Africa’s mission is and has been to enable and power the IoT in Africa through the provision of affordable and reliable network connectivity and solutions, and to empower homes and industries to have full visibility and control of their assets.

Chief Executive Officer, IoT Africa, Lare Ayoola, said IoT Africa is the exclusive partner of Sigfox France in Nigeria.

Ayoola said the responsibility the signing conferred on it is to build the network, operate, maintain, support and build the channel partners who will sell connectivity to the network.

He said the job for now until IoT Africa channel partners take over, would be to provide sufficient devices and solutions, software platforms, dashboards and other components of the IoT ecosystem to be able to supply the customers with a complete solution.

The IoT Africa boss said part of the job also involved providing partners with technical support, websites that feed, marketing training and support and ensuring customer service is first class.

“With IoT Africa as a Sigfox operator in Nigeria, I think the Nigerian economy should expect a substantial boost. The provision of IoT services and solutions in Nigeria enables improved productivity, minimizes waste, maximizes loss, makes decision making much faster by providing a massive amount of data that can be analyzed and presented for decision-makers,” he added.

According to him, the demand for dedicated IoT networks is growing worldwide and most importantly here in Nigeria and considering billions of connected devices, the timing of the network deployment is highly significant.

He said IoT Africa is currently deploying the Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN), which will provide a national infrastructure to facilitate the growth and penetration of IoT and Industrial IoT in Nigeria.

In addition to its network expansion and IoT service offerings, Ayoola said IoT Africa has collaborated with some of the best in the IoT sector. “With the help of our partners, we have the right solution for every challenge.  Some of our device makers are Connected Finland, OleumTech, CleverFarm, and so on.

IoT Africa is aiming to offer a wide range of high-quality connected products such as utility meters, gas sensors, health watch, smart ID, smoke detectors, container trackers and street lighting solutions. IoT Africa is targeting high-volume industries that will use these connected products the most such as Utilities and Energy, Oil & Gas, Smart Cities, Smart Real Estate, Smart Facilities, Smart Agriculture and Smart Logistics.

“Our vision is to have a world where all assets are visible and well managed through the use of innovative, cutting edge IoT technology provided by IoT Africa Networks. We are very excited about partnership and even more excited to help improve Nigeria through IoT,” Ayoola stated.