Pan African Visions

Digital Transformation, Strong Private Sector Growth Key For Zambia’s Economic Development.

August 30, 2022

By Kelvin Mbewe , Lusaka, Zambia. [caption id="attachment_99942" align="alignnone" width="960"] Dr Anye Divine is in Zambia for a series of meetings[/caption] VISITING Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Expert Dr. Divine Sufor Anye says Zambia like many other African countries will attain meaningful economic growth if they make significant investments in the private sector through small business startups and through digital transformation. He says technology has a major role to play in the advancement of countries in the western world and that Zambia, like most African countries, has to develop the capability for technology drivers. In his opinion an economy like that of Zambia will not grow from the recycled national budgets but through the revenue that the small start businesses will be generating and the employment they create. Dr Anye who is expected in Zambia tomorrow 31st September ,2022 to take part in the Eastern and Southern Africa Anti-Money Laundering Group (ESAAMLG) Council of Ministers, 44th Task Force and 5th Public/Private Sector Dialogue (PPSD) Meetings holding from the 28th to the 3rd of September 2022 in Victoria Falls Livingstone said in an interview that technology is key for the economic development of Zambia and many other African countries. “If African countries want to catch up with the western world, they need to start making the necessary investment in technology development at every level in their society. We need to leapfrog, that way we can get to other Advanced countries without necessarily going through their steps and what they went through to get there using technology and that is what digital transformation is going to bring, it can bring a lot of economic development. We have key digital transformation drivers like cyber security, artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, Cloud Computing, Blockchain Technology which can all contribute significantly to the growth of the Zambian economy. He says that Technology, and investment in the private sector are the key drivers to the growth of today’s economies. “ This is what we as Africans should be looking forward to, building a startup economy in which our economies are more dependent on the private sector and small businesses, than necessarily always looking to the government to employ. It is not exciting to find the government hiring thousands of people when there are challenges, “he said. In Dr Anye’s view, the government should grow a strong startup base which will in turn grow the private sector to employ way more people and youths. “We should be having a bigger private sector with big aggressive start up approaches where young graduates can quickly build their own companies, employ others, pay taxes and grow the economy rather than depending on a fixed budget that we recycle and balance. So growing the economy is not by balancing the fixed budget but more about growing the private sector through small startups which through technological applications that we can use to employ, to solve our basic problems that we have and grow our economy, “he said. He cited an example of how private media organizations or individual journalists can utilize technology to reach out to people with good articles and a lot of people will consider him as credible and eventually they will have a large following. “For example, people consume information and a journalist’s job is to put out information, good or bad. Just think about someone that wakes up in the morning and must go for work and the weather is not good and that person is not going to know that the weather will be bad. This can affect his output. So we need to find ways of communicating things like weather to the population and today most people don’t have radio which we used to use is almost going away, “he said. He said that the world has changed so significantly, and that people have not made the necessary adjustments. “How do you as journalists start delivering more information to people using the tools and resources that are available today? There are online radio applications that people can download on their phone. How are we doing that and providing flash news to someone’s phone, alerts. If there is an emergency how do we communicate quickly to our masses,” he said. He said because Journalism has a role to play in the well-being and the livelihood of the people, journalists need to find new applications that can ensure service delivery is their line of duty to “Make people’s lives better, through better communications. Even in businesses our journalists now are using new lines of businesses using advertisements, publicity and even educational platforms in their own sphere. That is what this is all about. It is about everybody in their own industry looking at current technology and the tools and resources available and how they can deliver to customers, “he said. Dr Anye said previously it was up to manufacturers to develop a good product and understand that people will look at it and like it, but that today, it is a more customer driven and controlled market where customers are now asking what extra value you are delivering to them. What are the value propositions in your product or services? “Customers are now controlling what is now called customer expectations. Products now have what is called feedback and reviews of your product. That is how things are changing, so now you as a journalist, how are you going to be rated? Are you paying attention on whatever platform you are on in delivering your message? Are you being properly rated by your readers, listeners and viewers? “he said.  

1 comment

  1. I like to learn from great minds like this. Only this way can Africa develop and not depend on the hypocrisy of f the west in the name of helping Africa develop. No nation can help another develop but her people

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