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Maximising data in the private and public sector

Sibahle Malinga
By Sibahle Malinga, ITWeb senior news journalist.
Johannesburg, 15 Mar 2018
Policy making in government is currently not driven by the available data, said Sita's Dr Setumo Mohapi.
Policy making in government is currently not driven by the available data, said Sita's Dr Setumo Mohapi.

The correct use of data can significantly contribute to the economy of the country, when made available for use by both the private and public sector organisations.

This was the word from Dr Setumo Mohapi, CEO of the State Information Technology Agency. (SITA) speaking yesterday at the ITWeb Business Intelligence & Analytics Summit 2018.

Speaking about the importance of maximising big data and analysing it to gain value, Mohapi explained that there is a lot more data stored on both public and private platforms that has not yet been tapped into and exploited to its full potential.

This data, he asserted, when used adequately, could assist in building an ecosystem of data products and services that add value in both private and public sector.

"If Sita could build a digital marketplace to be used by different actors such as private and government organisations, teachers and mentors, this could help create up to 900 000 jobs in future."

Policy making in government is currently not driven by the available data or evidence-based statistics, and as a result organisations in both the public and private sector are always making mistakes in trying to resolve issues using the wrong approach, he added.

"We accept that the public sector has probably not derived as much value from the available data because we haven't maximised the use of that data. And this has been confirmed by research. We should maximise the full potential of available data to get a more stable economy, which has the potential to gain trillions worth of rands, if we properly use data to better understand our environment and citizens."

SITA, he continued, is working to create public interfaces to allow data consumption for a wide range of businesses and government. In future SITA intends creating an innovation space where information will be sourced and placed in the public domain and companies can leverage on it to gain business value and this can have a significant impact on the economy of the country, Mohapi continued.

"Millions of rands are invested by governments and businesses in seeking solutions to challenges without adequately using the available data to influence decision-making processes. We accept that if we used data better, we would have better insight and this would allow us to better define problems on the public private interface and use technical tools to seek solutions."

He made reference to a project run by Sita in partnership with the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research where data is used to get a better understanding of the profile of citizens and in future can be used to resolve certain challenges faced by citizens.

"Through data, which is stored at our data centre in Centurion, we are able to track the profile of children before they are born, by analysing their environment, family background, geographical location, social status etc. So that information is useful for us in preparing a better social protection of that child.

"Sometimes we pick up on the fact that children raised in a particular environment struggle with different skills at school - so we have many pupils making wrong decisions and choosing careers which are already saturated, when there is a skills demand in other careers which they could excel in."

All this information, he added should be used to make crucial decisions, even at policy-making level.

SITA, he continued, is working with various government departments to profile citizens using the available data to create better foundations which would help the state entity to understand citizens to create citizen profiles based on various factors and characteristics.

"There is a lot more that we can gain if the public and private sector work in different ways to maximise the use of advanced technology to gain real value from available data," he concluded.

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