{"id":29843,"date":"2019-10-31T09:56:41","date_gmt":"2019-10-31T09:56:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/?p=29843"},"modified":"2019-10-31T12:30:01","modified_gmt":"2019-10-31T12:30:01","slug":"digitisation-key-to-shaping-the-future-success-and-growth-of-african-economies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/2019\/10\/31\/digitisation-key-to-shaping-the-future-success-and-growth-of-african-economies\/","title":{"rendered":"Digitisation key to shaping the future success and growth of African economies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The world as we know it, is dramatically shifting as a result of technology. And given the reach of digital technology and the change it promises, Habib Mahakian, Vice-President, Emerging Africa at Dell Technologies, says that organisations across the continent are in a race to become digital businesses.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As an accelerator of development,\nthe world is also highly disruptive, redefining jobs and skills while also\nreshaping industries. As technology has evolved, so have we. The way we live,\nwork and connect with one another has changed dramatically and this fusion of\ntechnologies means that over the next decade, every successful business will\nneed to be digital at heart. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some companies are leapfrogging\ninto the future as they have fewer legacy challenges to deal with, while some are\nrunning the risk of being left behind. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, Digital Transformation\nis no longer a luxury or nice-to-have. It has become a necessity, spurred by those\nwho set its development agendas. Specifically, digitisation has become the\npillar that is driving growth and shaping the future success and growth of economies\nin the continent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, the Government\nof Morocco has put in place a new set of policies and reforms in the Morocco\nDigital 2020 strategy that aims to shift the country\u2019s focus to positioning\nitself as a digital economy to promote the effective use of and access to\ntechnology across various sectors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similarly, countries across east,\nwest and central Africa such as Nigeria, Kenya and Ivory Coast have plans to\naccelerate the adoption of advanced technologies to transform and facilitate\neconomic and social inclusion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While\nthe importance of digitisation and development of digital economies cannot be\noverstated, it is also important to recognise that this transformation cannot\nhappen unless the barriers to growth are reduced or even fully removed. From\nchallenges in regulatory policies to lack of infrastructure and basic access to\nelectricity, phones and the internet \u2013 there are still cities and countries in\nAfrica that are more complex that we usually imagine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For\ninstance, access to reliable and high-quality bandwidth is a critical factor in\nbringing the benefits of technology to businesses and therefore investment in\ntelecommunications infrastructure is key to becoming a digitally enabled\neconomy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\ncontinent\u2019s growing populations and lack of legacy technology infrastructure\ncan be turned to an advantage if countries adopt new technologies straight away\nand use them to leapfrog into the 21st century. According to the International\nMonetary Fund, the digital economy already accounts for more than 5% of gross\ndomestic product (GDP) in some African nations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This\ncould be more than doubled to 12-20% if countries harness the economic\npotential of digital technology. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Digitisation also spurs the\ndevelopment of new industries as in the case of e-commerce, mobile financial\nservices, IoT, and cloud computing. These contribute to national GDP in\nmultiple ways while also promoting growth of allied industries such as\nlogistics, infrastructure, and payments. These opportunities are not only\nlimited to the ICT industry, but also disrupts traditional industries to unlock\nspeed, lower costs, and ensure higher quality. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As an example, the banking\nand finance sector across Africa continues to evolve and transform with several\ndigital banking initiatives being introduced that is increasing financial\ninclusion. This in turn leads to an increase in a country\u2019s productivity and\ncompetitiveness – lowering unemployment rates, increasing access to technology\nenabled services for citizens and creating higher-wage and higher-impact jobs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Therefore,\nwhat organisations and governments need to understand is that Digital Transformation\nis not a destination, but a never-ending journey. With the right\ninfrastructure, policies and connectivity in place, businesses can expand, jobs\ncan be created, and economic\ndiversification will accelerate – promoting growth, inclusion and improving\ncitizen experiences. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is also another aspect of Digital Transformation\nthat is of critical importance and that is around using technology to transform\nsocieties. Every economy and country globally and in Africa, are looking for\nthe skills and talent around technology to succeed in the digital world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, we must enable youth to drive the\ndigital future, use technology to accelerate equality in the workplace and empower\ngender diversity and champion access and opportunity for all. By cultivating\ninclusion, we unlock innovation and the ability to thrive and progress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\nsummary<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The digital sector in Emerging\nAfrica region is poised for success like no other, with the tremendous push for\ndigital transformation coming from governments, with the end goal of improving\ncitizen experiences and fueling economic growth. These\nDigital Transformation agendas represent nation\u2019s efforts towards unlocking the\nregion\u2019s potential to radically improve healthcare, banking, education and\npublic services, among others. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But\nin order to win in the digital economy, the public and private sector must work\ntogether to ensure that the infrastructure, key policy principles and\nregulatory frameworks are put in place, in order to build an ecosystem of innovation.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is no doubt that\ntechnology is changing the ways in which we work, live, and play, and this will\nonly get more evident in the future. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We should be excited by the\npower and potential of technology to change lives for the better and help us\nmove beyond inefficiencies towards inclusive prosperity. A new chapter in\ntechnology-led human progress is within our grasp, waiting to be unlocked. It\nis simply a matter of choice \u2013 do we want to wait and fall behind, or do we\nwant to be the digital disruptors within the context of future emerging\neconomies in the world. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The world as we know it, is dramatically shifting as a result of technology. And given the reach of digital technology and the change it promises, Habib Mahakian, Vice-President, Emerging Africa at Dell Technologies, says that organisations across the continent are in a race to become digital businesses. As an accelerator of development, the world […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":29847,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4950,7383,9058,6,9057,19,9059,10675,13,262,9060],"tags":[1526,389,652,11576,11577,11575,11579,1165,297,11578,685],"class_list":["post-29843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-analysis","category-digital-transformation","category-east-africa","category-insights","category-north-africa","category-regional-news","category-south-africa","category-thought-leadership","category-top-stories","category-used","category-west-africa","tag-dell-technologies","tag-digital-transformation","tag-e-commerce","tag-emerging-africa","tag-government-of-morocco","tag-habib-mahakian","tag-international-monetary-fund","tag-ivory-coast","tag-kenya","tag-morocco-digital-2020","tag-nigeria"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29843"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29843\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29849,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29843\/revisions\/29849"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}