There is need for investment in critical ‘last mile’ infrastructure to take broadband to homes and offices, boost growth, and build on the link between broadband access and gross domestic product (GDP).
This view was canvassed by Computer Warehouse Group Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Austin Okere, who is also an Entrepreneur in Residence at Columbia Business School (CBS), New York.
He spoke on the Digital Advantage Panel anchored by Nielsen Bronwyn of CNBC Africa at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting of the New Champions held in Tianjin, China.
Others who bared their mind at the event included Rich Lesser, global CEO & President of the Boston Consulting Group; Natarajan Chandrasekaran, CEO of Tata Consultancy Services; Mitchell Baker, Executive Chairwoman of the Mozilla Foundation; and Maurice Levy, Chairman and CEO of the Publicis Groupe.
The theme was the Role of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) Education and the Importance of Computer Science on Future Employment Trends.
Okere shed light on the Nigeria Research and Education Network (NgREN) project on which his company, CWG, collaborated with the World Bank and the Education Ministry in Nigeria to deliver earlier in the year.
The project, the first of its kind in West and Central Africa, covers Nigeria’s 27 federal universities and over one million students and staff, providing high definition telepresence for real-time collaboration, voice over internet protocol (VOIP), shared access to research content, and joint experimentation projects.
Subsequent phases will extend to over 500 universities, polytechnics, and Colleges of Education, and cover more than 20 million people.
Okere explained that financial inclusion and M-PESA mobile banking system in Kenya has not taken off in promising markets such as Nigeria because the model in Kenya is led by a telecom operator.
He expressed skepticism about the ‘largest bank’ in the country being outside of the supervision of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), since telecom operators are rather regulated by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).
He said he favours a bank-led model, which is slow in taking off because banks are just learning the ropes in agent recruitment, a critical pillar in the value chain and the forte of telecom operators.
Okere, however, expressed confidence that the national identity card project in Nigeria will boost financial inclusion since the card, with biometrics and financial transaction capability (in conjunction with MasterCard), will be held by over 130 million Nigerians.
This is far more than the subscribers on M-PESA, which was about 15 million in June 2014.
Okere said legislation will always lag behind technology because of its manual nature and having to chase rapid innovation in technology.
According to him, business models based on the arbitrage of information such as travel agencies will be disrupted in favour of business models based on creativity and knowledge value add to information, such as software design, data analytics and e-commerce enablers such as Google and Alibaba.
In today’s world, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) can have access to the technology advantage enjoyed by larger companies by leveraging technology solutions through cloud computing and spreading capital costs through subscription payments.
The WEF Champions meeting, which holds annually in China and also known as the ‘Summer Davos’, attracted over 2,000 delegates comprising global industry captains, top academia, heads of state, and top government functionaries.
It was opened by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and the founder and Chairman of the World Economic Forum, Schwab Klaus.
Schwab thanked China for its hospitality to the WEF community and assured of the reciprocity of the global business community through increased investment in the country.
