There is enough evidence that Africa can be digitally transformed – but what is holding us back?
This is the question posed by former Nigerian Minister for Communications Technology, Dr Omobola Johnson, delivering the UN Economic Commission for Africa’s (ECA) annual Adebayo Adedeji at the Conference of Ministers in Marrakech.
Economic experts agree that, in the currently environment, the success of this continental trading bloc, will hugely depend on digital technology, tools and skills.
Dr Johnson cites a number of success stories across the continent and how they have used technology to provide services to the hitherto uncatered for or under served, but says that many challenges remained.
“Affordability is an issue: the internationally agreed target is for 1gb of data to cost no more than 2% of the average national monthly income. In Africa this currently stands at 8,76%, compared to 3,5% in Latin America or 1,54% in Asia. And the latest affordability reports show that this has increased over the past year,” she says.
She also notes disturbing tax trends, both on digital infrastructure and utilisation taxes which, although seductive, can often have unintended consequences, such as increasing the cost of digitisation and curbing its transformative impact.
Dr Johnson calls for an urgent need to strengthen the infrastructure and fibre network.
Currently when connecting Cape to Khartoum, she says, the connection will go via London, New York, San Jose and Tokyo to arrive in Khartoum 409-milliseconds later.
She also decries how most of Africa’s connections are via undersea cables connecting via Europe or elsewhere. “It is the private sector that can solve this issue,” she says. “But they also need to be supported and incentivised.
“When you recognize these challenges and accept that there is a lack of scale amongst our start-ups it could be argued therefore that this digital transformation we speak about might be hyped. But the increased ownership of mobile phones and those that have access to it is having a true impact.,” she adds.
Dr Johnson points out that many companies across different sectors using tech to transform their sectors from energy, to agriculture to healthcare. “But it’s work in progress.”
She urges governments to be more supportive and develop a long-term digital strategy. “We also need to be more innovative in our financing mechanisms to allow VC to borrow at low rates and help scale up innovators.”
Dr Johnson mentions the urgent need to develop a pool of skilled talent that can turn the continent into the world’s digital talent pool in the same way that China became the world’s factory, through a large labour force and targeted government policy.
Source: https://it-online.co.za/2019/03/27/the-digital-way-forward-for-africa/#