- Africa must invest in human development to catch up to the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR).
- There is a need for policy commitment to developing Africa’s human resources.
- Investing in education is the only way Africa will catch up to the 4IR.
With the majority of its workforce unskilled, Africa is again left behind. At the same time, the rest of the World moves forth in the fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR).“African countries must support skills training and put in place the right policies to tap the benefits of the fourth Industrial Revolution,” advises Raymond Gilpin.
The economist believes that by investing in its most significant resource, Africa can strategically catch up with the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR).It requires dedicated policymaking focused on raising a generation of skilled labour capable of participating in and innovating digital revolutions in all sectors. By investing in transforming its human skills, Africa can reap the rewards of the 4IR in the coming decades.”
The fourth industrial revolution is not exclusively about industrialization in Africa; it is about how a shift in the adoption of technology could disrupt, revitalise, and influence exponential growth,” the economist explained.
Sharing similar sentiments, Mavis Owusu-Gyamfi, Executive Vice President of the African Center for Economic Transformation (ACET), says,”…the fourth industrial revolution requires a rethink on adopting new technologies, which is an opportunity, not a threat.”
“We like to talk about progress, but what we have done is leapfrog from low-productive agriculture to low-productive services. That will not generate the jobs we desperately need,” the ACET executive vice president cautions. He warned that African policymakers need a deeper understanding of the 4IR to harness its benefits. Additionally, he said that; “Much of Africa is reverting in transformation, according to ACET’s recently launched Africa Transformation Index.”
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Labour skills required to scale-up fourth industrial revolution
Research covered 30 countries representing 86.5 per cent of the continent’s GDP and revealed that transformation challenges facing Africa include low labor productivity, mainly due to low skill levels.
Mavis Owusu-Gyamfi, Executive Vice President of the African Center for Economic Transformation (ACET), noted that there is a dire mismatch between skills and education systems in Africa. Africa is producing a labour force that needs to meet what companies need. In the future, this disparity will only worsen as the continent experiences a population explosion that needs to be trained to meet the skill levels of the 4IR.Despite its current export increase, Africa needs to diversify its export products to match the global competitiveness of other third-world countries.
Only by investing in skills development can Africa hope for accelerated industrialisation and a chance to reverse its profound low-skill labor force.
“Additionally, Africa needs to invest in formal jobs that can be scaled up, and improve the quality of service to be globally competitive,” comments Natalie Jabangwe, the Chief Digital Officer at Sanlam, a globally recognized financial services firm.
Africa must put more emphasis on its people; this only happens after some time. School syllabuses must be changed and universal education provided to increase its literacy level.
It is not enough to have a literal population anymore; the workforce must be trained to adopt digital technologies. If the current and future generations in Africa are to get employment in the companies of the future, they must be tech-savvy.
He believes Africa must focus on creating what he described as ‘sustainable work of world-class platforms.’
Understanding Africas’ manufacturing value
Unlike the widespread view that Africa has increased productivity as a merit of its growing economies compared to the rest of the World, the expert said that Africa’s productivity has not increased in manufacturing as purported but rather in exporting raw materials as has been the norm.
“… Africa’s manufacturing value has declined over the past 40 years.” Noted, Rita Babihuga-Nsanze, the Chief Economist and Director of Research and Strategy at the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC).
According to her, in the early 1980s, manufacturing’s share of GDP was around 18 per cent, but this value has declined to 10 per cent of GDP as of 2011, and the trend is worsening. We are seeing a downward curve, not a growing trajectory for manufacturing.
“This has been attributed to a lack of capital, poor infrastructure, energy and intentionality, and poor industrial policies,” she detailed.
In her explanation, she said the AFC has promoted the establishment of Special Economic Zones (SEZs) that serve as development models for African countries to ramp up industrialization.
However, she cautions that African policymakers must use the SEZs as models for their more extensive national productivity plans. On the contrary, she said, countries are operating as usual and leaving the SEZ models as isolated production camps.
If Africa is to catch up to the rest of the World and, in particular, meet the requirements and benefit from the 4IR, then the SEZ models should be rolled out as national strategies.
Understanding Industry 4.0, the Fourth Industrial Revelation
He explains that Industry 4.0, refers to today’s technological era of connectivity, advanced analytics and automation in manufacturing.“The fourth industrial revolution has been changing business for years globally…this wave of transformation in the manufacturing sector started in the mid-2010 and has great potential for operations and the future of production,” writes Enno de Boer, a senior partner in the research company McKinsey.
He explains that while steam propelled the original Industrial Revolution, electricity powered the second, and automation and machinery engineered the third, now intelligent computers are shaping the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
“Fourth industrial revolution stands on the foudations of the Third Industrial Revolution and digital revolution which unraveled from the 1950s and to the early 2000s and brought forth computers, different kinds of electronics and, the Internet,” he writes.
Africa has again been left behind, but there is a chance to catch up. As the experts have explained, what is needed is policy commitment to human development. Africa must invest in its people, prioritize education, and ensure that the current and coming generations are educated at par with the rest of the World, that is to say, educated in digital systems.
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