The greatest global tech companies of our era are built on one construct: The Aggregation-Integration Construct. Provided the web remains unbounded and unconstrained on distribution, Nigeria’s leading tech firms of the future must discover value therein. It is about marginal cost, and driving scalable advantage across markets and territories. As the 2022 arrives with that immersive connectivity, I can see that moment of glory at the horizon: begin to build.
By Nnamdi Odumody
The Nigerian oil and gas industry which is the livewire of the economy needs to embrace digital transformation to increase operational efficiency across its value chain. This is necessary as advances in technology across the globe is affecting oil and gas exploration, production, distribution and marketing.
The following technologies are transforming hydrocarbons:
Artificial Intelligence can help oil and gas exploration companies to discover and predict oil fields with large reservoirs. Through deep learning, image recognition to identify deep reservoir of hydrocarbons, mining will be more efficient. With sensors, oil wells can be monitored remotely while robots can be deployed to the deepest offshore and onshore fields to engage in exploration, production and even products refining in refineries. Through aggregation of real time data in exploration, production, distribution and marketing, performance will be accessed and friction points will be accessed to get them solved.
Blockchain is a secure transaction ledger database shared by all parties. It is a distributed network which records and stores every transaction that occurs in the network, creating an irrevocable auditable transaction history, and holds the potential for all participants in a network to share a system of record.
It will help Nigerian upstream oil and gas companies to track their value chain, from production to distribution and midstream companies, to monitor their operations while downstream companies like the upcoming Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemical, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation can utilize it in monitoring operational efficiency at their refineries, petrochemical plants and supply chain.
Petroleum Marketing Companies can use blockchain to verify the genuineness of imported products at the depots before transporting them to their retail outlets or end users. Smart Contracts will create new business models for oil and gas operators, as it eliminates intermediaries since it is an agreement entered into between the seller and buyer, without the need for a lawyer, as it autonomously executes various terms written in that contract. It is highly secure and transparent, reducing fraud which could occur by the buyer of the product.
3D Printing or Additive Manufacturing will help oil and gas companies replace damaged parts, e.g. ruptured oil and gas distribution pipelines for products distribution. It is cheaper and faster than conventional production which will take time.
IoT will help in monitoring oilfield, pipeline products distribution, refinery and petrochemical plant operations as well as logistics operations to achieve efficiency. It enables predictive maintenance in case of disruption which can occur during operations and can also be deployed at Tank Farms to monitor the importation, loading and evacuation of petroleum products while retail stations can deploy smart pumps which will help to prevent problems of cheating in discharge of petrol by manual attendants to customers.
Smart Wearables will help oil and gas companies in the upstream, midstream and downstream sectors to monitor the operations of their employees, in real time, in order to know those who are delivering the most value to the organization.
Augmented Reality is a technology which relays a physical thing in a digital format while virtual reality is a computer generated simulation of a three dimensional image or environment that can be interacted within a seemingly real or physical way by a person with wearable technology. These technologies can be used in training oil and gas employees on safety measures while on the field, display live 3D data from oil and gas fields which could yield reserves, and refinery or petrochemical plant production floor that could be used in decision making.
Nigerian Oil and Gas companies need to embrace digital transformation like their counterparts across the globe to solve some of the common problems which they confront. Efficiency in production systems will surely help the Nigerian economy.
Let me begin by congratulating all of you that just graduated. You have done well for yourself, your family – and our nation. The future offers promise and abundance. But you need a real strategy to unlock that future, sustainably.
Depending on your grade, jobs will possibly line up: consulting firms like EY, KPMG, Accenture, Deloitte and PwC always discover great graduates. Those jobs happen for most that finished top of their classes. I had the same challenges many years ago: offer letters on great jobs you did not even interview for.
But let me tell you something about Nigeria: we have extremely limited opportunities after seven years of job experience. So, there is a pyramid and most professionals peak very early on earnings here.
Yes, many enter with bang, but within seven years, companies cannot find where to promote them into, and because you need fewer at the top, many have to be cut. If you check, post-cut, most will never earn the level of income they earned four years after graduation because there is nothing else to work into.
So, out of the possible 1,000 that joined the banking sector, less than 100 may be around after 10 years. Most of the other 900 may never recover because getting an industry with mid-management space to pay for their experiences remains hard in Nigeria.
With Nigeria’s economy not expanding, fast enough, extremely brilliant people cannot transition from one sector to another. It creates career paralysis.
So, on this day, I want to drop some insights to make sure that after the celebrations, you have a game plan. Read this my piece and plan that career and quickly develop a career roadmap.
As the wise man Solomon wrote many years ago, there is time for everything. You must know when to invest in your career and when to monetize your skills. Getting an extra degree is not a distraction. Getting a certification is not a distraction. Learning something new should never be a distraction. Always make sure you have a strategy with resilience to decouple your future from the decision of any man/woman.
Fresh graduates, planning for the deep future may make you look stupid before peers who may not see beyond tomorrow. That first job is not for buying cars and expensive jewelry. It is to re-invest and INSURE your career with skills.
We made huge progress yesterday – a leading African telco will provide super support to Zenvus Loci. With this relationship, great things will happen. A formal announcement is coming in May. Also, in May, all our partners will start experiencing Zenvus Loci.
We are finalizing APIs to help schools, logistics firms, ecommerce, human security, etc to have the capacities to integrate their current supply chain frameworks with Zenvus Loci. Few months ago, I provided the first pencil sketch of this product. Today, we are already tracking cargoes [our partners are experiencing some tests, across continents, live].
You need to join this movement – let’s build a 21st century intelligent supply chain in Africa.
Loci is a disposable or reusable package GPS that you can put in a briefcase, cargo, personnel, etc and monitor in real time its location. We see opportunities in tracking the specific cargoes (not just the trucks), ecommerce shipments, security guards, equipment on transit, law enforcement (police, army, etc), human (child, oil workers, etc), luggage (individuals shipping via buses, personal air travel luggage, etc), vehicles (no installation), etc. It is cheaper than anything in the market and it is rechargeable with USB.
Zenvus Loci application areas
Why do people like destroying winning systems? Pride! In NBA many years ago, Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal were winning in LA Lakers – then, one felt he could win without the other. The rest is history.
The outclassing of C. Ronaldo and Juventus last night, by Ajax, has shown that even Ronaldo needs Real Madrid just as Real Madrid needs him. There is nothing else he will win in Italy this year Juventus has not been winning without him. The President of Real Madrid wanted to prove a point – and Ronaldo also wanted to make his own point. Today, all backfired: Real Madrid is laughable this year and Ronaldo’s season came short.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s hopes of Champions League glory with Juventus are over, for this year at least, after yet another stunning performance by Ajax in their quarter-final second leg in Turin.
Goals from Donny van de Beek and Matthijs de Ligt cancelled out Ronaldo’s opener and sealed a 3-2 aggregate victory for the Dutch side, who knocked out Ronaldo’s former club Real Madrid in the previous round.
Juventus splashed out €100 million (£86.4/$133m) to bring Ronaldo to Turin with the expectation it could fuel a charge for European glory.
In business, sometimes, wisdom is managing these extraordinary talented people. If you just have the mentality they can leave, the end result may be bad for them – and also for you. Sure, Ronaldo has his $133 million to make more statutes but he might have won his last Champions League.
Both Real Madrid and Ronaldo lost last night!
Comment #1: Same thought went through my mind. CR7 needed Marcelo with the dangerous crosses, Ramos with the we-die-here spirit, Modric with the small job in the midfield. He couldn’t get them. Madrid needed the finishing of Ronaldo, but they couldn’t get it. Lose-lose situation.
Comment 2: It would be mistaken to assume/presume that had Ronaldo remained in Madrid, another Champions League would have been possible this year. When you look at Real Madrid trajectory in the last few years, the team peaked in 2017, winning Champions League in 2018 papered over a serious crack, in a disastrous campaign. It was actually a question of when, not if; the team had been in decline, but any magical night kept making everything else look fine…
As for Juventus, the team have had fundamental flaws in the last few years, they always looked good on the surface, but always cracked any time they faced a good team with fast players; check their records in the last four years. The Juve’s deficiencies are beyond what Ronaldo alone can cover; they are atrocious most times in Europe, only looking good when playing cagey football against average teams.
For businesses, keeping one or two star performers happy may not save you all the time, if you fail to address the fundamental flaws that breed inefficiencies in several departments. That you have an experienced pilot won’t save an airline who fails to run all the checks over long period of time; the aircraft will still carve in at some point.
A defective heart may fail any body part.