Raspberry Offers Low-cost, Power-efficient Solutions to Boost Access, Job Creation

 James Emejo in Abuja

Raspberry Pi Limited has introduced low-cost general-purpose computing to entrepreneurs, startups, schools and industrial customers to meet their growth needs.
Raspberry Pi, a small, single-board computer (SBC) is used for a variety of purposes, including learning computer science, robotics, home automation, digital signage, and drones.

Speaking at its marketing/promotional event in Abuja, Chief Commercial Officer, Raspberry Pi Limited, Mike Buffham, said globally about 70 per cent of its business is targeted at industrial customers while about 30 per cent of business goes to education customers and enthusiasts.
He stated that the solutions allow for young entrepreneurial activity to start creating wealth and job opportunities for people quickly.

According to him, people getting their first experience of computing on Raspberry Pi have attested to their affordability and productivity compared to competition.
He told THISDAY that the Nigerian market offers huge potential, allowing for much better access in remote locations, stressing that the solutions have the capacity to significantly boost remote learning as well as support agri-tech, particularly controlling agricultural irrigation.

He said Raspberry solutions are also free from broadband challenges.

Buffham said, “It doesn’t have to have internet. I mean, a computer obviously benefits from having internet these days. But yeah, if you don’t have good internet, I mean, one of the applications that we were just running here was showing a school that uses a local, so uses a Raspberry Pi computer as a local server.

“So, you don’t need internet. You have a local server that has lessons on it and that you can transmit that around the school without internet.”

Further speaking on its impact, he said, “I think that is down to you, down to the people.

It doesn’t matter if you’re in Nigeria or in the UK or in the US or in China. It’s what you do with it. I think it’s a great bias.

“It’s a great component to enable people to quickly get a product to market.

“I think it’s great power is how quickly a customer can take an idea, use our computer.  They don’t have to worry about the hardware.

“They might worry about software or other things of the system.”

“So, it gets a customer’s idea into the market very quickly. If you’ve got the right mindset, that allows young entrepreneurial activity to actually start creating wealth and job opportunities for people very quickly.”