The Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic has exposed the tech sphere’s underbelly with Africa getting the shorter end of the stick when it comes to leveraging available platforms.
Many African developers could have been locked out of excelling at a global level and providing solutions for their needs on the continent by leveraging on available technology.
Cameroonian tech activist and CEO of AppsTech Inc., Rebecca Enonchong, has expressed her displeasure with how the tech world is continuing with the side-lining of Africa—as it has been for decades with other resources.
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In the face of the coronavirus, Enonchong has regretted that big online traffic and hosting platforms such as Google Play owned by Google and Apple Store provided by Apple have curtailed the ability for African developers to showcase ground-breaking solutions that they have nurtured in the effort to tackle the pandemic.
While it may take time for solutions to be available on the two American tech giants’ platforms, she re-echoed the case for “low tech” solutions such as USSD and the SMS which do not require smartphones and government intervention to reduce the cost of broadband urgently.
Speaking during a virtual high-level policy dialogue on ‘leveraging technology in assisting African countries in the fight against Covid-19’, Enonchong was among other participants who emphasized the need for African governments, in synergy with the private sector and civil society, to collaborate on aggregating solutions and avoiding duplication of efforts to fight against Covid-19.
Amel Saidane, President of Tunisia Startups, says that her country’s government is already taking that route seeking a North Africa regional collaborative platform to pool together the flood of ideas and solutions from public-private partnerships.
The dialogue convened by the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) with Ant Financial Services of the Alibaba Group generally agreed that there is need to quickly set up a collaborative platform for immediately helping businesses to sell African products on and beyond the continent in this time of crisis.
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In view of these, the panellists said that Africa needs broadband, faster, cheaper and expanded to the last mile of the continent’s populations.
The event which brought together leaders of the Asian tech giant, some African ministers of technology and telecommunication, private sector actors across the continent and innovation/digital economy activists, agreed that technology is a common denominator in mitigating not only the impact of the coronavirus pandemic but also restoring livelihoods and tackling similar challenges in the future.
“It is clear that the novel coronavirus has led to physical confinement in many parts of the world but enterprises which leverage the power of digital and innovative technologies continue doing business; in fact – even more business as Ant Financial has demonstrated in offering financial solutions to 10 million additional customers in the midst of the crisis,” said the UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the ECA, Vera Songwe.
Eric Jing, Executive Chairman of Ant Financial and Member of the Advisory Board to ECA’s Digital Centre of Excellence said that they have so far used digital technology to help businesses boost online trade, build intelligent networks to support agriculture and food chain delivery, practice online medical consultations, carry out online job searches and provide contactless loans to small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs).
“We believe that leveraging digital transformation during this crisis will save lives and jobs especially in tourism and related services,” said Jing.
The pandemic which broke out in Wuhan, China and reported to the WHO in December 2019 is a clarion call for Africa to prioritize digital connectivity and governance.
Guinea’s Digital Economy, Post and Telecommunications Minister, Moustapha Diaby, says that without technology, it has been difficult tracing Covid-19 spread in his country. He said despite the challenges with technology, his country is using bulk SMS messaging and mobile telephony networks to push public service announcements via ring tones in the major languages of the country.
With the perceived discrimination against African developers, should the continent create its own internet ecosystem to enable the running of Africanised solutions to the daily challenges those on the continent face?
