It’s Time for Digitalized Real Estate in Nigeria

Nigeria is one of the largest leading economic hubs in the world with an incredibly large population. To help live a more comfortable, safer life it is only best to live smarter.

IoT Africa, the official sigfox partner here in Nigeria has taken it upon themselves to help us make better living decisions that will aid our comfort and lifestyle; with this, a webinar was organized. The webinar held on 28th October 2021 at 11am on Zoom. The theme for this webinar was Smart Homes, Buildings & Cities: Digitizing Nigeria’s Real Estate.

The sole aim of this webinar was to bring together bright minds to discuss how today's leading thinkers in the real estate space are using data and cutting-edge technology such as the Internet of Things (IoT), to make better decisions and deliver more value.

The webinar started at 11:05 with the welcome address from the moderator of the day, Wole Bamgboye, marketing communications manager of IoT Africa Networks. He opened the flow by giving a slight intro as to why the webinar was coming up now and the need for industry experts to jump on IoT (Internet of things).

He said,’ our goal is to educate everyone in Nigeria about Smart Homes, Smart Building & Cities, how IoT is revolutionizing the Real Estate sector in Nigeria’. At the webinar, we had some of the best minds in IoT as speakers.

The panellist for that day was, Executive Director IoT Africa Networks, Melanie Ayoola, Tim Lindblad, Founder Connected Finland, Maija Patjas, Head of International Relations Rapal oy and Yann de la Roche Saint Andre, Fourdata io.

The first to speak was Melanie Ayoola, who spoke on what IoT means for the Real Estate industry business and some of the solutions that will help the sector. She said, “For businesses, Internet of Things (IoT) allows you to get information via sensors about your buildings, homes, offices, estate, facilities, hotels, construction sites, warehouses, greenhouses, Gyms, Clubs, Lounges and Schools’’.

Some of the benefits of IoT to the real estate industry (businesses) are:

1. Reduce operational costs

2. Improve building efficiency & security

3. Deliver better services

4. Make better decisions with insights

5. Offer new smart services to clients & residents

6. Optimize spaces better

7. Enable proactive maintenance

She also spoke about how IoT also helps homeowners; she mentioned that one of the major benefits of investing in IoT is the ‘Peace of Mind’ it gives.

Before we go further, what is it to LIVE SMART?

1. It means smarter & better security

2. Improve your standard of living and quality of life

3. Less Stress, Less Waste, More Time

4. Take better smarter care of your health

Next to take the stand was Maija Patjas, she is an active speaker on Space management and active base work. Maija has over a decade of experience in workspace development, management & research and business development. Maija spoke solemnly on space management and office solutions.

She spoke about Rapal and said, for over 30years they have focused on creating solutions that will help employees work smarter. She said, ‘’Rapals mission is to create a better workspace where space use, employee experience, cost, societal and business impact are optimized with the help of data’’.

The goal is to have employees work at their best and produce satisfactory results through comfort and smarter office management. She said, ‘’with the occurrence of Covid, offices have gone hybrid and more flexible work options have been adopted.

One of the solutions they offer is ‘Worksense’, The Optimaze Worksense smart office solution empowers employees and facility managers to plan for and implement a controlled and safe return to the office. Worksense makes your employees' workday run smoother and easier by offering mobile tools for pre-booking desks or sending service requests and much more.

In conclusion, she said, when your employees work smarter, you get the best results from them.

Our 3rd speaker was Tom Lindblad, who spoke on ‘Mitigating the risks of indoor quality monitoring’. The goal is to boost air quality monitoring in Nigeria. He spoke at length on the benefits of monitoring indoor air quality as most of us take it for granted as it has severe impacts on our life without us realizing it.

He said, ‘’ with the rise of covid 19 in 2020, it is only best to monitor our air quality as people are coming out of lockdown and returning to work’’. He gave some breakdowns as to how bad air can be transmitted around how the primary factor is the airborne transmission.

He strongly spoke on how bad air can affect our productivity at home and work. With Covid, respiratory droplets are significant causes, produced during exhalation (breathing, talking, and laughing) drop from our mouth, visible and non-visible. The Connected Airwits monitor is a connected carbon dioxide (CO2), temperature and humidity-metering device for real and accurate air quality monitoring. Lastly, he spoke on the need to protect ourselves and the air we breathe in.

Our last speaker was Yann de la Roche Saint Andre from Fourdata io who was represented by Francois Clement. The topic was IoT Solutions for smart cities and Industries.

In his Introduction, he said, ‘’the internet of things (IoT) is making ordinary buildings industries and cities become smarter. These buildings have automated processes and sensors that automatically monitor and control the building's operations.

He gave an insight into how the process is. It starts with the sensor, which then connects over a network (Sigfox), the data storage and then an interface.

About IoT: IoT Africa Networks Limited is the exclusive Sigfox operator in Nigeria and we are responsible for rolling out the first IoT nationwide network in Nigeria. The IoT LPWAN (Low Power Wide Area Network), powered by IoT Africa Networks Ltd and Sigfox, is a game-changing digital technology in Nigeria.

About Tranter IT: Tranter IT Infrastructure Services Limited (Tranter IT) is an ICT and Internet of Things Solutions company that provides unified technology solutions to business problems. The company is the exclusive distributor of many IoT Connected devices in Nigeria. Tranter IT was founded in 2004 and has over 340 highly skilled employees, including about 280 ICT and IoT engineers.

About Connected Finland: Connected Finland is operating nationwide, dedicated IoT networks powered by global Sigfox-technology. Connected Finland network covers already 85% of the Finnish population and hundreds of global and local ecosystem partners are already utilizing our Low Power Wide Area technology in their IoT solutions.

About Rapal: Rapal specializes in the financial and environmental effects of the built environment. It is The company provides SaaS software for space management, space utilization, and smart office solutions. The company believes that a functioning work environment and a great workplace experience is competitive factor that increases productivity and employee wellbeing.

For more information, please visit IoT Africa’s website https://www.iotafricanetworks.com/ .

T: 07083557478, 07085801253

Email:

enquiries@iotafricanetworks.com, enquiries@tranter-it.com

Website: www.iotafricanetworks.com, www.tranter-it.com