Nigeria discovered oil in 1956 and it transformed the country. Today, DATA is doing the same thing — but for everyone, not just oil companies.
What is data?
Data is any recorded information — numbers, words, dates, locations, images, audio.
Data in your daily Nigerian life:
• Your WAEC score is data
• The price of tomatoes in Mile 12 market today is data
• How many BRT buses ran late this week is data
• Your phone battery percentage is data
• The number of goals Osimhen scored this season is data
Why data is valuable:
• MTN uses call data to predict which customers will switch networks
• Konga uses purchase data to recommend products
• Nigerian hospitals use patient data to predict disease outbreaks
• Flutterwave uses transaction data to detect fraud in milliseconds
The data economy:
The global data market is worth over $300 billion. Nigeria generates enormous amounts of data daily but most of it is not being used properly. Data scientists and analysts who can make sense of this data are among the highest-paid professionals in Nigeria today.
Types of data:
• Quantitative — numbers you can calculate with (45 students, ₦2,000, 37°C)
• Qualitative — descriptions and categories (male/female, Lagos/Abuja, excellent/poor)
• Structured — organised in tables (spreadsheets, databases)
• Unstructured — raw format (text messages, photos, audio recordings)