The Director General of Smart Africa initiative, Lacina Koné, on Wednesday stressed that yet lot of businesses, most of them small businesses, did not survive the complications of the COVID-19, Smart Africa was at the forefront of digital solutions to the pandemic.
“We have had to be more resilient, more adaptive and to work harder than we have before,” Mr Kone said referring to the ongoing situation of COVID-19.
According to him, the challenges of the pandemic have also brought opportunities to fast track the digital transformation of Africa.
“It taught us that if we wanted our children to have an education, we would need to quickly deliver digital learning solutions; if we needed to manage the pandemic, technology would be in the forefront of our solutions and if we needed to return to normalcy, we would need to increase the pace of Africa’s digital transformation,” he said.
Among key projects being implemented by Smart Africa’s initiative during COVID-19, it includes creating a Single Digital Market by 2030 where by four blueprints namely the Smart Broadband 2025, spearheaded by Senegal; the ICT StartUps and Innovation Ecosystem blueprint, led by Tunisia, the Digital ID project; championed by Benin and the Smart Villages blueprint, led by Niger were initiated.
Other initiatives include the Internet Bulk Purchase initiative, aiming to reduce the cost of connectivity in Africa by as much as 50%; the Smart Africa Digital Academy (SADA), aimed at creating a new generation of technology leaders and the Smart Africa Trust Alliance (SATA) which will give credibility to interoperable solutions among other key initiatives, it said.
“The year has finished strongly and as we venture into 2021, I encourage us all to remain vigilant to remain resilient,to continue to adapt and to be prepared to transform Africa for the better,” Mr Kone said.
The Smart Africa Alliance is a partnership between 30 African countries adhering to the Smart Africa Manifesto.
Its goal is to accelerate sustainable socioeconomic development on the African continent[2] through usage of Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) and through better access to broadband services.
CU/abj/APA