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Abstract

Big data and the computer technology to analyze it are said to be one of the top 10 revolutions in the coming decade. While the developed world is making strides in the use of big data for decision making purposes, the Low-income countries (LIC) or poor countries and some medium-income countries (MIC) or developing countries are lacking behind in their collection and use of digital data to aid decision making. This is especially the case with many businesses and government agencies that have the potential to benefit in their policy designs and implementations from big data. The purpose of this article is to present the importance of big data and how governmental agencies and companies in developing nations may benefit from its use. The study reviews the obstacles to technology development in developing countries and presents two success stories in third-world context; KickStart International and the Dangote Group that use data analytics tools to solve challenging problems in their communities. The study concludes that citizen-centric policy making could rely on data collected from different sectors such as healthcare, finance, education, security, and others, analyze those details faster with advanced big data analytics tools and leverage the results to deliver more beneficial policies for the society. Governments in third world need to invest and enable programs that promote the use of data for decision making.

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