Treat Critical Infrastructure As Strategic Assets, West African Organisations Urged

West African organisations have been urged to treat critical infrastructure as strategic assets that are central to performance, resilience and competitiveness, rather than merely as operational resources.

Vice President, Services, Sub-Saharan Africa, Schneider Electric, Nnadozie Ogbuehi, gave the advice against the backdrop of ageing infrastructure, skills shortages, energy constraints and growing operational demands across the region.

Ogbuehi said infrastructure challenges in West Africa were further compounded by variability in infrastructure, grid instability and limited access to specialised technical skills, making proactive and data-driven decision-making increasingly important.

He said organisations seeking to remain competitive must move beyond reactive maintenance to insight-led strategies that provide visibility into asset performance, risks and opportunities for optimisation.

According to him, advisory services provided by experienced original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) combine technical expertise with advanced analytics to identify hidden risks, uncover performance gaps and prioritise interventions with the greatest operational impact.

He said the combination of on-site expertise, asset data analysis and benchmarking could provide organisations with clearer insights into asset health and performance, enabling them to make informed decisions on lifecycle extension, risk exposure and investment priorities.

Ogbuehi said such advisory services were particularly important in sectors where downtime, inefficiency and safety risks could have serious consequences.

He noted that the growing data centre market in West Africa required operators to maintain high availability and optimise energy performance as demand for cloud services and digital infrastructure increased.

“In mining and manufacturing, where productivity and asset longevity are closely linked, advisory insights help balance operational output with safety, energy efficiency and equipment reliability, while reducing unnecessary operational risks,” he said.

He added that proactive asset monitoring and lifecycle planning were critical in the healthcare sector, where infrastructure failure could directly affect patient outcomes.

Ogbuehi further said oil and gas and other energy-intensive industries required robust infrastructure strategies to ensure safe, efficient and sustainable operations.

He identified connected assets, advanced analytics and digital assessments as key tools enabling organisations to assess asset health, quantify risks and simulate potential scenarios before problems occur.

According to him, combining operational data, historical performance and OEM expertise would enable organisations to shift from reactive intervention to predictive and proactive asset management, thereby improving uptime, reducing inefficiencies and optimising capital investment decisions.

He said working directly with an OEM offered advantages over third-party providers because OEM advisory services were based on original design knowledge, proprietary data and full lifecycle expertise.

“This unique combination of engineering insight, digital capability and field experience allows organisations to make informed decisions that enhance safety, reliability and long-term performance,” he said.

Looking ahead, Ogbuehi said advisory and consulting services would play an increasingly important role in developing more sustainable, resilient and efficient infrastructure across West Africa.

He said organisations that could translate infrastructure insights into action would be better positioned to reduce risks and drive the next phase of industrial and digital growth in the region.