How To Draw Africa Continentin 4 Steps

The Quaternary Industrial Revolution (4IR)—characterized past the fusion of the digital, biological, and physical worlds, besides every bit the growing utilization of new technologies such equally artificial intelligence, deject computing, robotics, 3D printing, the Internet of Things, and advanced wireless technologies, among others—has ushered in a new era of economic disruption with uncertain socio-economical consequences for Africa.¹ Yet, Africa has been left behind during the past industrial revolutions. Will this time be different?

And then far, it does not appear that Africa has yet claimed the 21st century,² as it still lags backside in several indicators essential for a successful digital revolution (meet Figure v.1).³

Improvements in Africa's ICT sector have been largely driven past expanding mobile digital fiscal services: The region had virtually one-half of global mobile money accounts in 2018 and will see the fastest growth in mobile money through 2025.

But artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain are too alluring interest in Africa, every bit they have the potential to successfully address social and economic challenges there. And at that place are so many other areas in which 4IR applied science can exist transformational.

The transformative potential of 4IR in Africa is substantial

Encouraging economical growth and structural transformation

In recent years, the ICT sector in Africa has continued to grow, a tendency that is probable to continue. Of belatedly, mobile technologies and services have generated 1.7 million direct jobs (both formal and informal), contributed to $144 billion of economic value (viii.5 percent of the GDP of sub-Saharan Africa), and contributed $15.six billion to the public sector through taxation.^iv Digitization has also resolved information asymmetry problems in the fiscal arrangement and labor market place, thus increasing efficiency, certainty, and security in an surroundings where information flow is disquisitional for economic growth and job creation.

Failure to recognize and capitalize on 4IR opportunities, conversely, volition impose considerable risks on African stakeholders: Without attempts to move beyond existing models of innovation, entrepreneurship, and digital growth on the continent, African businesses chance falling farther behind, exacerbating the global "digital divide" and lowering their global competitiveness.^v Going beyond the existing models requires field of study in governance to allow an endogenous innovative surroundings. At the same time, institutions must protect the market through consumer protection laws and regulations that encourage competition.

Fighting poverty and inequality

The spread of digital technologies tin empower the poor with access to information, task opportunities, and services that amend their standard of living. AI, the Net of Things (IoT), and blockchain can heighten opportunities for data gathering and analysis for more than targeted and effective poverty reduction strategies. Already, we have witnessed the transformational ability of formal financial services through mobile phones, such as M-Pesa, reaching the underserved, including women, who are important drivers for sustainable poverty eradication. These financial services permit households to save in secure instruments to enlarge their asset base and escape cycles of poverty.

Reinventing labor, skills, and product

By 2030, Africa'south potential workforce will be among the world's largest,^half-dozen and so, paired with the needed infrastructure and skills for innovation and technology utilise, the 4IR represents a massive opportunity for growth. Indeed, the 4IR is dramatically changing global systems of labor and production, requiring that chore seekers cultivate the skills and capabilities necessary for adapting quickly to the needs of African firms and automation more broadly. Already, Africa's working population is becoming better educated and prepared to seize the opportunities provided by the 4IR: For example, the share of workers with at least a secondary didactics is fix to increase from 36 percent in 2010 to 52 pct in 2030.⁷

Increasing fiscal services and investment

Digitization has impacted economic growth through inclusive finance, enabling the unbanked to enter formality through retail electronic payments platforms and virtual savings and credit supply technological platforms.⁸ More broadly, digitization is enabling entrepreneurs and businesses to rethink business organisation models that are more impactful, sustainable, and continued to other sectors of the economy. For case, with fintech, digitization has gone beyond the financial sector to impact the real sector and households, transforming product designs and concern models across market place segments.^nine Businesses are able to pattern products and trade online, and individuals are able to operate financial services and payments for shopping and investments. The government is also migrating to online platforms to conveniently provide public services.

Other 4IR technologies are also having impact. For example, in West Africa and Republic of kenya, blockchain has enabled efficient verification of property records and transactions, and expanded access to credit in some previously informal sectors of the economic system.^ten Since blockchains are immutable, fraud—and thus the cost of risk—is reduced. There are also immense opportunities for job creation in Africa.^xi Given the informal sector is estimated to constitute 55 per centum of sub-Saharan Africa's GDP¹² (with significant heterogeneity beyond countries), these tools can be transformational. Their consequences tin pour: Increased fiscal inclusion contributes to greater capital accumulation and investment, hence potential for employment creation.^thirteen

Modernizing agriculture and agro-industries

Africa has all the same to harness the full potential of its agronomical sector, and 4IR technologies provide an opportunity to do so. Farming alone accounts for sixty percent of total employment in sub-Saharan Africa, and the food system is projected to add more jobs than the rest of the economy betwixt 2010 and 2025.^xiv Subcontract labor and income is especially important in sub-Saharan Africa, where on-farm activities represent almost 50 percent of all rural income in countries like Ethiopia, Republic of malaŵi, Nigeria, and Tanzania.^fifteen Information on competitive pricing, monitored ingather information, disease prevention tips, and disaster mitigation support has the potential to transform the agriculture sector to improve income, product, and demand throughout the continent. Furthermore, as incomes rise across the continent, growing consumer demand for food and beverages will coincide with business-to-business growth in agro-processing.

Republic of ghana-based companies Farmerline and Agrocenta offering farmers mobile and web technology for agricultural advice, weather data, and financial tips. Zenvus, a Nigerian startup, measures and analyzes soil data to aid farmers utilize the right fertilizer and optimally gargle farms.¹⁶ The "Sparky Dryer," a dehydration automobile invented by a Ugandan engineer, uses biofuel to dehydrate produce and reduce nutrient waste.¹⁷ African entrepreneurs and startups are also using the Internet of Things to help farmers optimize productivity and reduce waste material through data-driven "precision farming" techniques.

Improving health care and human being capital

African countries confront numerous health challenges exacerbated past climate change, limited physical infrastructure, and a lack of qualified professionals. 4IR technology tin can aid mitigate these threats and build sustainable wellness care systems, specially in fragile states.

Mobile technology has become a platform for improving medical data and service delivery: About 27,000 public health workers in Uganda use a mobile system called mTrac to report medicine stocks. The SMS for Life plan, a public-private partnership, reduces medicine shortages in primary health care facilities by using mobile phones to runway and manage stocks levels of malaria treatments and other essential drugs.¹⁸ Rwanda became the first country to comprise drones into its health care system, using democratic air vehicles to deliver claret transfusions to remote regions. Technology has also improved disaster response: During the West African Ebola outbreak in 2014, WhatsApp became an piece of cake method of dispersing data, checking symptoms, and communicating under quarantine.¹⁹

Illness detection and pharmaceutical product have most immediately benefited from digitization. AI is existence slowly implemented in Federal democratic republic of ethiopia to help medical professionals correctly diagnose cervical cancer and other abnormalities.²⁰ IBM Research Africa is besides using AI to determine the optimal methods for eradicating malaria in specific locations and using game theory and deep learning data analytics to diagnose pathological diseases and nascence asphyxia.²¹ (For more on the promise of artificial intelligence in Africa, meet the viewpoint on page 69 of the full report).

Strategies for overcoming fundamental challenges facing Africa during the 4IR

Clearly, the 4IR presents meaning opportunities as well equally challenges for Africa. The key issue for policymakers is how to position their economies to benefit from the 4IR while managing the challenges that it presents. Below are three strategies that leaders should prioritize.

Fixing the labor-skills mismatch

Since creating jobs for the burgeoning youth population is a priority in most African countries, many governments are reluctant to support technologies that threaten existing jobs. Some of the current technologies tend to replace low-skilled workers—of which Africa has an abundance—with higher-skilled workers, constraining participation in the 4IR to economies with relevant skills.²² African governments must invest in didactics and reskilling programs to ensure that technology supplements, instead of replaces, labor.

Enhancing agile governance for secure, effective management of the 4IR and integration into global value bondage

As innovation is at the heart of the 4IR, reinforcing state and institutional chapters to drive and back up innovation and create an enabling business environment is essential for success.

A major regulatory claiming involves increasing cybersecurity. Nearly African countries lack a comprehensive legal framework and institutional capacity to address cybercrime. Instead, efforts to prevent cybercrime are appearing at the more than local level or are implemented past private sector actors themselves. For instance, between 2015 and 2016, there was a 73 pct increase in Information Security Management Organization-certified companies, from 129 in 2015 to 224 in 2016, with the majority in South Africa, Nigeria, and Morocco.²³ Adopting widely accepted and appropriate norms and regulations, such as these, is a commencement step to increasing cybersecurity. At the aforementioned fourth dimension, companies should invest in their employees to develop cybersecurity skills and integrate cyber take chances protection in their conclusion making procedure.

The African Continental Free Trade Agreement offers a unique opportunity to enhance governance effectually the 4IR. With aligned policies and procedures, the continent can conform to the rapid changes of the 4IR and leverage information technology to advance participation in global value chains.

More than broadly, the 4IR can actually empower service delivery, through, for example, national identification and a new generation of biometrics that can centralize data for a diversity of uses and users.

Developing physical and digital infrastructure

Admission to avant-garde technology in Africa is constrained past infrastructure parameters such as lack of electricity and low tele-density, cyberspace density, and broadband penetration.²⁴ As a upshot, mobile phone and internet employ remains depression (Figure five.2). (For more on strategies for upgrading Africa'due south ICT infrastructure, run across the viewpoint on page 71). Other technological bottlenecks include a lack of standardized awarding programming interfaces and common data languages for the increased integration of largely self-sufficient systems as well as exposure to the dangers of cyberattacks. Accelerating the concrete connectivity of fiber-optic networks as well as the interoperability of virtual platforms is disquisitional not only for upgrading technology on the continent, simply as well for reaching and lowering unit costs for the underserved.

More broadly, adequate infrastructure evolution will drive and sustain economic transformation in Africa. With lower transport and advice costs, countries with suitable agro-ecological conditions can produce high-value products. Closing the internet connectivity and access gap with advanced economies will enable more than African countries to enter service export markets. Small-calibration manufacturers in Africa may also get more competitive with access to digital platforms for inquiry, sales, and distribution.

To brand the almost of the 4IR, African governments and entrepreneurs need to recognize new niches for industry and leverage them to accomplish sustainable, inclusive growth, and have decisive steps to close the gaps in digital skills, infrastructure, and inquiry and development.

Source: https://www.brookings.edu/research/the-fourth-industrial-revolution-and-digitization-will-transform-africa-into-a-global-powerhouse/

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