LIVE FROM GSMA MOBILE 360 SERIES – AFRICA: IoT technology is “at every corner of our life”, and opens up a number of opportunities across Africa, Bello Moussa, director of innovation and industries alliance at Huawei (pictured) said.

“IoT connectivity is changing the way we live, the way we work, the way we consume, the way we produce, and eventually maybe the way we reproduce, also. IoT is connecting our home, our fridges, our cars, and possibly our chickens. The only limit is our imagination,” he said.

Particularly important were the potential use cases for IoT in African markets, which can often be very different to those most commonly cited in more developed regions: “Starting with smart geysers in South Africa, waste management systems in Kenya, preventing poaching in Tanzania, and drug verification in Nigeria, we have a lot of opportunity – it’s a big market.”

Moussa also talked of changes in business model needed to support IoT in the region: “There is big money to be made in IoT, but we have to think in a different way. We have to think outside of the traditional business concept, and we have to think of both making money and giving something back to society.”

From a technology viewpoint, “we need to have a strong network connection to unlock the potential of IoT. We need cloud solutions, with big data for the intelligence. And then we can target all the verticals and industries,” he said.

Echoing many of the other presentations here at Mobile 360 Africa, partnerships were on the agenda: “We are also calling for collaboration with important global and international players in IoT ecosystem, in building a better connected Africa.”