Leveraging Technology for Africa's Inclusion

Innovation is not novel to Africa. There is a widespread myth that tells us that Africa was a dark and underdeveloped continent prior to the arrival of European innovation. Paradoxically, Africans are just as innovative, as people from the developed world. As revolutionary as their inventions are, the gains of these creative ideas are only felt within the immediate community. They receive less attention from the global community. Nevertheless, technology implies that new platform now exists that can take these inventions globally. Incidentally, African creativity is being noticed.

Technology enables these novel ideas to be promoted and developed, providing them more accessibility to a wider and bigger audience. This augmentation inspires added investment into the African continent, especially its technology sector, which, in turn, delivers required funding and support to develop new ideas and nurture them to maturity. Most of the local problems being encountered by communities in Africa are now being solved by innovative ideas. By taking these ordinary innovations to more geographies, technology becomes a great enabler. Bridging the technology access gap starts with education. Technology in education will feed into a society of tech-savvy, skilled, and entrepreneurial people. Creating the opportunities for them to take their ideas to market is the next step.

According to a 2018 report from the Broadband Commission’s Working Group on Vulnerable Countries, less developed countries can overcome challenges to providing more high-speed Internet connectivity to majority of their people. The report highlights how high-speed internet could serve as an enabler and multiplier in various sectors and outlines the key challenges achievement of this objective to include unaffordability of smartphones, weak digital literacy, irregular mobile broadband coverage and absence of applicable local content and applications. The report further offers suggestions to leveraging high-speed internet in these underserved societies, chief among which is greater co-ordination by the government with key actors such as the private sector and the global community with regards to enacting business friendly laws, supporting local e-businesses, digital literacy, serving the rural population, sustainability and promoting affordability.[1]

The Pathways for Prosperity Commission in its 2018 report titled “Charting Pathways for Inclusive Growth: From Paralysis to Preparation”, examines the effects of technological innovation on inclusive growth, employment and living standards in developing countries. This report identifies five possible pathways that developing economies could adopt for future inclusive growth and employment for people living in poverty. The report outlines three priorities that all countries should focus on to make the most of technology: being 'digital ready', guiding their markets towards innovation, and ensuring inclusive gains. The report further recommends that citizens, policy makers, business leaders and civil society work together to chart a course for inclusive development.[2]

Those who see challenges as opportunities can become successful entrepreneurs, by leveraging technology to create solutions that expand access to education, healthcare and social services. A few years ago, I was privileged to attend a mentoring session in Lagos for aspiring social entrepreneurs in Nigeria. One of the guest speakers at the session was Dr. Seyi Oyesola, a Nigerian medical doctor who shared his story. Hospitals in Nigeria are frequently under-equipped and susceptible to power outages. To overcome this, Dr. Oyesola developed CompactOR, a mobile clinic that operates off solar energy. Since its launch in 2007, CompactOR has transformed the medical care that is available in rural areas in Nigeria, including those that are unreachable by road, because the solution can be delivered by a Sports Utility Vehicle or by helicopter and set up in ten minutes. The mobile clinic is a complete operating room with all the tools necessary including a defibrillator, EKG monitoring, suction, an anesthetic machine, and surgical lighting.[3]

Not only by assisting more people through social innovations like ‘CompactOR’ and creating access to empowering tools like the internet, but as businesses grow around these innovations, they will need to employ more people to manage new geographies and develop local knowledge and competencies. Access is a major component of building a sustainable society. The public and private sectors have a huge role to play in providing every citizen with affordable access to information and leveraging technology to deliver services. For inclusive development to be sustainable, governments need to creating enabling environments for creativity to thrive and ultimately impact the economy.

REFERENCES

[1] Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development. 2018 “Broadband for National Development in Four LDCs: Cambodia, Rwanda, Senegal and Vanuatu” July 2018, Accessed October 12, 2018

[2] Pathways for Prosperity Commission. 2018 “Charting Pathways for Inclusive Growth: From Paralysis to Preparation”, Chapters 2 to 7, Pathways for Prosperity Commission. Oxford. Accessed October 13, 2018

[3] Insight Health Consulting Blog. “Profile of Dr. Seyi Oyesola”. Accessed October 13, 2018