To boost efficiency in the operations and service delivery of the power and downstream sector of the oil and gas industry, experts have called on the federal government to make the industry technology driven.

The call was made during a zoom meeting held by the Nigerian Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (NIEEE) recently.

Speaking during the meeting, tagged: ‘Implementing a Secure Industrial Control Systems’, National Chairman of NIEEE, Kings Adeyemi, said that the greatest problem of Nigeria’s industrial environment is the inability to use the right computer programmes in factories.

Noting that inadequate power supply, slows down the growth of the Industrial Internet of Things (IoT) in Nigeria, he said, there is a need for professionals to combine IoT skills with information technology, to be able to efficiently handle cyber security for smoother machines interactions and operations.

“The big problem with the industrial environment in Nigeria is having the right computer programme to be used on the factory floor.

“There is also a lack of awareness on the need for IoT, due to lack of adequate power supply for seamless machine operations.’’

On his part, a Lagos branch member, Mr Michael Akan, called for adoption of technology in the downstream petroleum industry to curb leakages and corruption.

Akan said that instrumentation and control engineering principles could measure contents, pressures, temperatures and other parameters of petroleum products in storage tanks and their movements as well as ensure safety of tank farms.

“I have said it times without number that this is the only way petroleum products distributors can monitor movement of quantities in the storage tanks,’’ he said.

The guest lecturer, Mr Abiodun Odewale an IT, instrumentation, control and automation engineer, said that cyber security was a major challenge affecting computerisation of industrial operations in Nigeria.

Odewale made slide presentations on how machine censors in factories interacted to take in and give out information through computer networks and how hackers took advantage of the loopholes.