(From left) Dr Njenga, Dean, Strathmore Business School; Ben Roberts, CTIO Liquid Telecom; Dr. Vincent Ogutu, DVC Planning and Development at Strathmore; and Strive Masiyiwa, Chairman, Econet Wireless.
Leading Pan-African telecoms group Liquid Telecom, a subsidiary of Econet Global, has partnered with Strathmore Business School (SBS), the graduate business school of Strathmore University, to launch a new data analytics centre focused on data-driven research and practices for African businesses.
Under the partnership, Liquid Telecom will provide the new Strathmore Africa Analytics Data Centre with dedicated rack space and colocation services at East Africa Data Centre (EADC), the region’s largest and only Tier III certified data centre.
Liquid Telecom will also establish a direct fibre link between the SBS campus and EADC in Nairobi, which will facilitate data analytic services such as data mining, predictive analysis and exploratory data analysis.
The Strathmore Business School already works with a range of high-profile public and private organizations, including Microsoft, IBM, Google, Deloitte, World Bank and the Kenyan government, which will now be better served through the additional capabilities of the new data analytics centre.
“A data revolution is coming to Africa, bringing with it the need for new skills and infrastructure to help businesses unlock the true potential of Big Data. By providing Strathmore Business School with access to our world-class facilities at EADC, we hope to provide a platform for innovation in analytics, as well as develop joint solutions to some of the challenges being presented by large volumes of data on consumers,” said Dan Kwach, General Manager at EADC.
“Businesses in Africa now have a lot of data about their customers and their buying behaviour. So far a lack of skills in data science has prevented businesses from using that data for strategic decision-making,” said Ben Roberts, Group Chief Technology and Innovation Officer (CTIO) at Liquid Telecom.
Through the new Strathmore Africa Business Analytic Data Centre, SBS aims to develop a world-class environment for training, skills enhancement and application of data in Africa policy, innovation and business decision-making.
“Strathmore envisions a data centre that will cultivate data analytics to help executive entrepreneurs and government make data-driven decisions,” said Dr George Njenga, Dean Strathmore Business School.
“Students at SBS and Strathmore University will be able to harness the power of new technologies to solve some of the region’s oldest problems, demonstrating the power of partnership in the era of the data revolution,” said Rosemary Okello-Orlale, Director of Africa Media Hub at SBS.
A business desk report