Stakeholders Harp on Building Viable Digital Economy

Emma Okonji

Some stakeholders and leaders who gathered at the just concluded 7th edition of the Africa CEOs Forum in Kigali, Rwanda, stressed the need for African governments to build a more viable digital economy that will ultimately turn Africa into a technology driven knowledge-based economy.

The Ag. CEO/MD of CWG Plc, Mr. Adewale Adeyipo, who joined others at the forum, advocated for an inclusive ecosystem that could aid technological development on the continent.

Adeyipo, argued that Africa’s labour market was being disrupted as over 65 per cent of primary school children today are likely to work, in the next few years, in jobs or fields that do not presently exist.

“Africa is rapidly becoming consumer of digital services rather than creators in today’s digital economy and to change this scenario, we need to rethink the existing model and build a sustainable digital ecosystem and as well create more digital champions for our children of today,” Adeyipo suggested, while sharing few points on building an ecosystem for digital technologies in Africa.

Speaking further, Adeyipo advised that the continent should create broader awareness and the deployment of a digital economy that could follow the ‘Integrated design approach’ that Africa would bring together for specialisms usually considered separately.

Other African stakeholders who spoke at the forum, highlighted the GSMA Intelligence Report, 2018, which showed that the mobile economy in Africa would generate more than $150 billion, which is about 7.9 per cent of GDP of economic value, while 300 million people are expected to come online by 2025.

The stakeholders further asked if all these be enough for Africa to be ready for the digital economy transformation.

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