For the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) to see true prosperity, there is a need for stakeholders on the continent to devise digital solutions “designed by Africa and used by Africa”. This was the principal takeaway from the array of experts who shared thoughts at the maiden edition of the Africa Digital Conference, which had as its theme ‘The Digital Challenge: Africa’s Opportunity Under AfCFTA’. It was unanimously agreed that wholesale adoption of imported digital solutions, particularly those which take very little of the continent’s peculiar dynamics into consideration, would represent a lost opportunity for the continent to adequately take charge of its affairs and see some of its brightest persons miss out on designing home-grown solutions for Africa. According to the Minister for Communication and Digitalisation, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, indigenous solutions are crucial for the success of cross-border trade and payment systems, as well as the delivery of equitable social services to people across socio-economic boundaries. Beyond digitalisation, she noted, there is also the need to systematically create opportunities for homegrown start-ups in the space. In a speech read on her behalf, she said: “I believe that if governments can support a vibrant computer hardware manufacturer in one country to supply various schools across the continent, while reciprocating the support to other competitively-advantaged companies in sister countries in other areas of expertise, there will be an increase in the scale upon which these companies can viably establish or cement their operations. “These are truly the building blocks toward realising...
Experts demand digital solutions ‘designed by Africa, for Africa’ to drive AfCFTA
Posted on: August 30, 2021
Posted on: August 30, 2021