Big data: An everyday tool for development

BY BASIRAT ISHOLA

Have you ever worried that you are being spied on by search engine companies and social media platforms because what you searched for showed up like adverts on your social media pages? This is a good example of the role of artificial intelligence and big data.

Big data are large volumes of data that cannot be analysed by traditional data processing tools. They are characterised by their size, complex structures and continuous growth. Quintillion bytes of data are produced daily from social media, telecom data, mobile phone call logs, government databases, application logs and CCTV records.

Handling these data is expensive and challenging because of issues like appropriate tools, space, compliance issues, data storage and maintenance challenges.

Data analytics involves the collection, cleaning, analysis and transformation of the data into information that can be understood and utilised.

Big data in its raw form is often messy and impossible to understand. The data is collected, stored in a data lake, cleaned, and then analysed. Tools like data mining, machine learning, predictive analysis, artificial intelligence, business intelligence and visualisation tools are used to transform such data into graphs, charts and other forms that can easily be understood.

The implication of big data analytics in our lives can’t be overemphasised. Every sector of the economy is benefitting from this.

The entertainment industry: Netflix and other streaming services make use of patterns generated from customers’ viewing information to suggest movies to other customers. This allows customers to find and enjoy movies they love while the streaming services make more money. Iroko TV and other indigenous movie streaming services will make more money from this. Their customers will also get more value for their subscription when they receive recommendations derived from their personal view history.

E-commerce: Jumia, Amazon and other e-commerce sites use artificial intelligence to generate patterns and trends in products purchased or viewed by customers. This helps them suggest such products to others for easy accessibility and better sales. They can also analyse customer product reviews, adjust the supply of products depending on their reviews.

Banking: Billions of customers’ information are tracked across banks all over the country. Some Nigerian banks track spending patterns and catchment areas and notify customers when such patterns change and card usage is outside the catchment area. This helps to combat internet banking and card-related fraud. Banks can also partner with security agencies to establish patterns in customers banking to detect fraudulent activities.

Security: The national identity management commission manages trillions of data including names, pictures, identity numbers and other biometrics information of citizens. This data, if well utilised, will assist Nigerian security agencies with facial recognition and effective tracking of citizens, combating terrorism, money laundry and enhancing national security.

Medicine: Medical researchers are continuously analysing billions of data in the bid to find solutions to the numerous health challenges in the world today. With adequate funding, the Nigerian medical research field will make greater strides using big data.

Government policies: Great policies are the ones created from intelligence derived from data; those are policies that will effect actual positive changes in any country. Policies in developed countries are largely dependent on big data. With the introduction of bank verification number (BVN) and national identification number (NIN), our government has commenced the journey of big data. If these resources are properly annexed, the Nigerian government policies will do a lot of good as they will be created on a foundation of information gotten from the analysis of accurate and recent data.

The application of data analytics to big data has also helped discover trends and patterns to achieve customer retention in businesses, business process optimisation, better business decisions and increased profitability.

The success of any establishment hinges largely on how they handle their data and how much these data have influenced their planning and decision-making. It is therefore wise to invest in big data and all its applications.

Basirat Ishola, a big data expert, writes from Lagos