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COVID-19: The potentials of Africa’s digital economy

Coronavirus took a booming stride across the world to cause a glooming confusion. Apart from the health perspective we are all battling with, the wealth of most nations tumbled in hollowness and some countries that have not caved-in are cowering in terror.
But it is not all bleak for the future of Africa, though it seems jaggedly distributed tomorrow will be squarely dispersed. With COVID-19, a number of households have adopted technology more aggressively. The crisis has forced many organizations to work from home as normal business practice. Virtual meetings via video conferencing using tools like Zoom and the likes have become the order. According to Reuters, the number of Zoom’s daily users ballooned to more than 200 million in March from a previous maximum of 10 million as at December 2019.
Gone were the days when roofs were made with straws and when raindrops the size of bullets thundered through and the inhabitants must look for gourds to put in the pockmarked sections. Today, technology has made us forget the harrowing experiences of having our houses razed with fire within a twinkle of an eye. Today, technology is changing the world faster than ever before. Today, the digital economy is growing. Today, ICT solutions and infrastructure have taken a much more prominent role in society and Africa cannot be an exception.
The emphasis of this script is for us to recognize the enormous potential for leveraging technology to drive economic growth and development and accelerate progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals.
Where exactly is the world going technologically?
Everything is going to the cloud and like a bee ready to sting, technology is buzzing and droning in the air like the 5G, artificial intelligence, blockchain, drones, and robotics. With the incursion of COVID-19, everybody can see that the world is connected like a Wi-Fi – people to people, people to things, and things to things. You could now get updates of the virus from remote parts of the world to the other as quick as lightning. In the healthcare field, tiny devices to collect information about people’s health and monitor their condition in real time are now being used. The healthcare sector is truly going digital.
We have heard during this COVID-19 of drones delivering food supplies to residents in some advanced countries. We have also been reliably informed that shopkeepers in Kenya accepted mobile payments to drones delivering life-saving medical supplies in Rwanda to schoolgirls learning job-ready skills through the ITU-UN Women African Girls Can CODE Initiative. This is incredible, Africans are embracing the digital economy.
Yet, it’s regrettable that we have not understood what innovation is and how strong the potential of Africa’s digital economy can be. For instance, Facebook raked in a net income of $4.9 billion from January to March 2020 with daily active users (DAU’S) of 1.73 billion on average for the same period. YouTube revenue on the other hand, is estimated at between $9.5 billion. These are huge incomes that accrued to the earnings of the U.S. economy.
Are African children ready for the digital economy?
I can answer without mincing words that African youths are ready and waiting to make that leap, but are African leaders ready to take them by the arms? There is no denying the fact that digital transformation will provide the springboard for a leap into the African Century.
Without more rapid digital transformation, Africa will not succeed in creating the huge number of new jobs needed to match its population growth and only our leaders can make that become a reality.
It is so unfortunate that even in the face of high tech advancement in the world, someone somewhere could manipulate most Africans to believe that 5G is laced with the dreaded virus called COVID-19. The 5G network is the fifth generation technology standard for cellular networks, which cellular phone companies started deploying worldwide in 2019. It is connected to the internet and telephone network by radio waves, so how it was supposed to cause a virus and be transmitted through people is incredible. If we continue to believe in some ancient culture and absurd rumours, we will maintain a snail speed and hundreds of millions of our children will miss out on the opportunity to realize their potential.
There are still numerous sceptics out there who do not believe that it is possible to make money on digital platforms. However, according to the Freedom House Index 2018, Nigeria was ranked third in Sub-Saharan Africa and 21st out of 65 global markets that were measured for internet freedom in 2018.
Nigeria also ranks at the top of the list of African countries based on the share of traffic via mobile. Other African markets with similar share of mobile online traffic are Sudan and Ghana. Looking into the future, it looks limitless and bright for Africa if she can think differently about how industries are organized.
Yes, the digital economy is led by the developed countries but the true potential lies in the emerging markets like Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Angola, Congo, Zambia, Ethiopia, Kenya to mention a few countries. Let’s ask ourselves this question, why do you think the Asian nations want to have our hands in marriage? Because we still have an untapped market.
Although many of the aforementioned states are stooping with respect to the size of their digital economies as a percentage of the GDP, but with immense political efforts, they might join the first class club quite soon.
It is an indisputable truth that the digitalization of Africa’s economy will have a major impact on growth if it reaches Small and Mid-sized Enterprises (SMEs).
It is as a result of the digital economy that enables a businessman in Australia to do business with other partners in Austria. Similarly, a tiny business in a remote part of Senegal can access an infinite number of potential customers and suppliers in Ghana.
We must have a government whose clear vision is to push ahead the digital initiative that will transform Africa into a digitally empowered nation and knowledge economy. By doing so, we will be reaching out to citizens in the remotest of locations and make them a part of Africa’s growth story. Connecting all the rural areas with high-speed internet networks will explode our economy into competing with rest of nations in the world.
The major headaches in Africa are data cost, data protection and online payment hiccups. The country of Africa has been trudging technologically for miles with archaic loads on her back, who will unburden her load?

Anjorin contributes this piece from Lagos via olusanyaanjorin@gmail.com

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