Adeyemi Lahanmi 
With global attention focused on digital economy, Mr. Andie Moyan, the CEO of Citidata, speaks to ADEYEMI LAHANMI about the transformatory impact data-driven businesses, election and Diaspora voting in Nigeria
How do you see the digital economy picking up in Nigeria?
The digital economy is poised for significant growth, driven by the Minister of Digital Economy, Dr. Bosun Tijani, and President Bola Tinubu’s efforts to put infrastructure in place. With over 130 million mobile users in Nigeria, the market potential is huge. However, we currently have less than 1% of the required data center capacity, indicating vast opportunities for growth.
Power infrastructure and sustainability can’t be overemphasized. Can you elaborate on its impact on the sector?
Power is a critical component for data centers. We’re not following the traditional centralized power distribution model due to its limitations. Instead, we’re leveraging modular plants and Independent Power Plants (IPPs), which are springing up in areas like Ogun State. This approach enables us to achieve 24/7 operations without relying solely on the grid that can crash at any time.
What framework do you think can be put in place for sustainability?
We need to implement our policies effectively. While we have airtight policies, the challenge lies in execution. We can’t implement what isn’t working.
On politics and policy continuity, there’s concern about continuity in policy with potential changes in government. How do you see this?
Every country has political games and an agenda. In Africa, we tend to get emotional about these issues. A stable framework that transcends political cycles is essential for sustainability. In places like America, you’re either left, right or independent.
What is the ideology for the APC? A lot of people don’t know and even for the PDP too. I have seen the manifesto for the APC and it is beautiful. I am not partisan. I did not vote for Tinubu and I won’t get a voter’s card until we get our digital framework right. Our last election was just a mess. Let me tell you why. It incorporated digital and analogue methods. You register digitally and count manually. It was dead on arrival as far as I am concerned.
Secondly, the ballot papers are security documents and when you’re printing those things, the ways of securing the documents, police, air force and security agencies are supposed to watch its distribution. The logistics to over 400 polling booths that are supposed to be handled by experts, you give it to bus drivers. Are you kidding me right now? Yet, what we see on TV is Youth corps members carrying the bags around and if we want to go digital, let’s go fully and it will work one day.
There is a plan to digitally incorporate those in the Diaspora to register and vote. Your view?
That is the way to go. Nigeria is working and we just have to be patient. For those who want to go to Japa, just have a plan and make sure you’re coming back to this country as Nigeria is going to work.
Talking about the President Bola Tinubu, see what he did in Lagos and for once we have a good president. It is now the second largest economy in west Africa and the 5th behind South Africa and see what he is going to do to Nigeria. There is no president in the world that is perfect but finally we have a president who has a roadmap of where we are to go and the thing, he is also good at putting the right people in place.
Could you tell us about Citidata and its formation?
Citidata was formed through a strategic partnership between Petrodata and Toptech Engineering. Petrodata has over 25 years of experience in building data centers for the oil and gas industry. Petrodata has been building data centres for the oil and gas industry for over 25 years and what they have done is to keep oil and gas data called seismic data, that is data from exploration and stored in cartridge tapes because of its file format for it to be secured rightly and also with the right temperature. With the advancement in technology, it has the capacity to be stored in the cloud and it requires huge infrastructure because of the size of its data. Citi data are in the edge space in data service delivery. Even, for our 5G to work, we need more edge infrastructure in making it work.
Toptech Engineering are system integrators as they build, maintain data centers and anything system integration, mechanical, electrical and it’s end to end from Toptech Engineering. This is a perfect combination because they build the infrastructure and Citidata run the data centre while Toptech Engineering is a seasoned system integrator. This partnership gives us over 50 years of combined experience and a quantum leap in capabilities.
Since you provide Edge services, can you explain what “edge” means in simple terms?
Edge refers to a network that quickly serves data based on your location and interests, reducing the need to go deep into cyberspace. It’s faster, cheaper, and more efficient.
